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28 Feb 2023

China Says TikTok Ban Reflects US Insecurities

U.S. government bans on Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok reveal Washington’s own insecurities and are an abuse of state power, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

The U.S. government “has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries’ companies,” Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.
“How unsure of itself can the U.S., the world’s top superpower, be to fear a young person’s favorite app to such a degree?”

The White House is giving all federal agencies, in guidance issued Monday, 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices. The White House already did not allow TikTok on its devices.

TikTok is used by two-thirds of American teens, but there’s concern in Washington that China could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private user data or to try to push misinformation or narratives favoring China.

Congress and more than half of U.S. states have so-far banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices.

Some have also moved to apply the ban to any app or website owned by ByteDance Ltd., the private Chinese company that owns TikTok and moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.

China has long blocked a long list of foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Washington and Beijing are at odds over myriad issues including trade, computer chips and other technology, national security and Taiwan, along with the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. and its shooting down earlier this month.

On Monday, Canada announced it was joining the U.S. in banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.

“I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters after the announcement.

Canadian Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said the Chief Information Officer of Canada had determined that TikTok “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”

“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone,” Fortier said.

The app will be removed from Canadian government issued phones on Tuesday.

The European Union’s executive branch said last week it has temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure.

TikTok has questioned the bans, saying it has not been given an opportunity to answer questions and governments were cutting themselves off from a platform beloved by millions.

28 Feb 2023

Roger Waters Frankfurt Concert Canceled After City Council Calls Him One of World’s ‘Most Well-Known Antisemites’

A planned concert by Roger Waters in Frankfurt, Germany has been canceled after the city council called the former Pink Floyd singer/bassist “one of the world’s most well-known antisemites.” Waters was scheduled to perform at the city’s Festhalle on May 28, on the spot of what was a Jewish detention camp during WWII, where 3,000 Jewish men were held on Kristallnacht (“Night of the Broken Glass”) in Nov. 1938 before being sent to their deaths.

“The background to the cancellation is the persistent anti-Israel behavior of the former Pink Floyd frontman, who is considered one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world,” the council said in a statement according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “He repeatedly called for a cultural boycott of Israel and drew comparisons to the apartheid regime in South Africa and put pressure on artists to cancel events in Israel.”

The JTA reported that the city of Frankfurt made reference to the historic significance of the concert hall — which it partly owns — and said it was cancelling the show over Waters’ support of the controversial BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). BDS is a Palestinian-led movement that calls for a boycott of Israel to force the nation’s government to change its policies toward Palestinians.

The JFA also noted that past Waters concerts have featured a flying pig balloon emblazoned with a Star of David (as well as a number of other corporate logos and symbols) and that he’s compared the actions of the Israeli government to that of South Africa under apartheid and Nazi Germany and questioned Israel’s right to exist.

At press time a spokesperson for Waters had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment; additionally, at press time the concert was still listed on Waters’ official site. Waters’ This Is Not a Drill tour is still slated to play a number of other gigs in Germany, including Hamburg (May 7), Cologne (May 9), Berlin (May 17) and Munich (May 21).

While Waters does not appear to have issued an official statement on the cancellation, he did retweet messages of support from an author and editor at the Palestine Chronicle who denied that the singer is an antisemite and an editor at the Delhi, India-based Marxist publishing house Leftword Books, who defended Waters’ stance on Israel. “Love you my brother,” Waters tweeted at Vijay Prashad, adding, “shoulder to shoulder. F–k em’!”

In Sept., Waters canceled planned shows in Krakow, Poland amid outrage over his stance on Russia’s unprovoked, yearlong war in Ukraine, which he has said was the fault of Ukraine and NATO. An official with the Tauron Arena in Krakow, where Waters was scheduled to perform two concerts in April, said they would no longer take place; the shows have been scrubbed from Water’s site. “Roger Waters’ manager decided to withdraw … without giving any reason,” Lukasz Pytko from Tauron Arena Krakow said in comments carried by Polish media outlets.

28 Feb 2023

Lyric Capital Raises $800M to Fuel More ‘High-Quality’ Catalog Acquisitions

The Lyric Capital Group says it raised over $800 million in new financing, closing its second fund that will be deployed in music asset investments through its publishing arm, the Spirit Music Group. The company further said that the new funding breaks out about 50/50 between equity and debt, with $410 million in equity commitments coming from existing and new institutional investors.

Overall, the company said the funding exceeded its target.

“I couldn’t be more excited about completing our latest fundraise with the participation of existing and new investors which validates our unique and collaborative approach to acquiring high-quality assets from recording artists and songwriters,” Lyric Capital co-founder/managing partner and Spirit Music Group chairman Jon Singer said in a statement. “Thanks to our relationships and proven reputation as good stewards of legendary song catalogs and recordings, we have a robust pipeline of proprietary opportunities and the capital to pursue them.”

Lyric Capital Group was formed in late 2018/early 2019 when Singer and then-Spirit vp of acquisitions and business development Ross Cameron led a buyout and recapitalization of Spirit Music.

“Since inception, Lyric Capital has transacted on over $800 million to develop outstanding catalogs of music, in partnership with artists and songwriters,” said Cameron, a Lyric Capital partner and co-founder. “Our disciplined investment approach is informed by our ownership of Spirit Music Group and supported by 25 years of proprietary music royalty data providing us with an unmatched insight when acquiring and managing copyrights. We are very pleased to close our second fund and thank our investors for their continued support of our unique platform.”

The company said it now owns and manages over 100,000 copyrights with both publishing and master recordings a part of the mix. Its catalog includes hits by The Who, Ed Sheeran, John Legend, Chicago, the Go-Go’s, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Camilla Cabello, Jay-Z, Ricky Martin, Brad Paisley, Toto, Madonna, Jason Aldean, Graham Nash, T.Rex, Charles Mingus, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Billy Squier, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Eminem, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Eminem, Salt-N-Pepa, Electric Light Orchestra, Tom Petty, The Traveling Wilburys and Lou Christie.

Eaton Partners served as the exclusive placement agent on the equity while Truist and Pinnacle led the debt consortium; and Ropes & Gray LLP served as legal counsel.

28 Feb 2023

Chart Rewind: In 1998, Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ Hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 (See Full Top 10)

“I decided that the only thing that could culminate this film was something that [brings together] all the emotions,” Titanic composer James Horner told then-Billboard radio editor Chuck Taylor in 1998.

“I wanted to write a song that would allow a contemporary legitimacy, so that it wouldn’t be just a period piece,” Horner mused.

On the Billboard Hot 100 dated Feb. 28, 1998, Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” which Horner completed writing with Will Jennings to close the 1912 (and 1997)-set Titanic, crowned the Hot 100. It debuted at No. 1 as it spent its fifth week atop the Radio Songs chart and arrived as the week’s best-selling song, newly released as a limited-edition stand-alone single.

On the Billboard 200, the Titanic soundtrack, featuring the ballad, scored its sixth week at No. 1, of 16 total weeks on top.

Notably, James Cameron, who solely wrote and directed Titanic, had originally forbidden that the film’s end-credits song include vocals. Horner, however, ultimately decided that he wanted a song to contrast the movie’s orchestral arrangements. As for the vocalist, “I needed an opera singer more than pop singer to bring all the emotional qualities I wanted,” Horner told Billboard. “For me, the only person that could do that was Celine. It was casting more than it was trying to find a superstar to sing it.”

Taylor’s story (which ran the week that “Heart” hit No. 1 on the Hot 100) continued tracing the steps that the song took to its lasting legacy: Horner surreptitiously met with Dion and her husband René Angélil, as he had long known the couple, and played a demo. Impressed, Dion likewise fell for Titanic following a private screening, taken by the film’s love story.

Five weeks later, she recorded it. “It was just electrifying,” Horner recalled. “She was singing like her life depended on it.”

Horner finally took the song to Cameron. “I was waiting for an especially good mood,” Horner said. “On one occasion, he was really excited about a special effect that had just been completed. I was sweating, but I played it.” Cameron’s reaction? “He couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘Aren’t those your themes?’ This is Celine Dion. How did you do this?’ He did love it.”

How did the rest of the Hot 100’s top 10 stack up the week that Dion hit No. 1 on the Feb. 28, 1998, chart? Count down the tally’s top tier that week below, along with a look at more honors that “Heart” has since achieved.

28 Feb 2023

Greta Van Fleet, Robert Plant, Lumineers, Earth, Wind & Fire Top 2023 Beale Street Music Festival

This year’s Beale Street Music Festival will feature sets from The Lumineers, Greta Van Fleet, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Earth, Wind & Fire, Hardy, Jazmine Sullivan, The Roots, AJR and 311.

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The event at Tom Lee Park in Memphis, Tennessee on May 5-7 will also feature appearances from GloRilla, Gary Clark Jr., Ziggy Marley, Young the Giant, Halestorm, Live, PJ Morton, The Struts, Gov’t Mule, Dru Hill, Mike., Andy Grammer, Yola, Toadies, Lucinda Williams and Living Colour.

Weekend VIP tickets will run you $995, while three-day tickets are $205 and one-day GA passes are $88.53; click here for more ticketing information.

Among the other acts slated to take the stage for this year’s fest are: Big Boogie, Cameo, the Bar-Kays, White Reaper, Shovels & Rope, Phony PPL, Low Cut Connie, Marcy Playground, Beach Weather, Jason D Williams, Myron Elkins, Dirty Streets, Mac Saturn, Tyke T, Sleep Theory and more.

The event will also host the Memphis Tourism Blues Stage on Beale at Handy Park — which is open to the public and free of charge — featuring Los Lobos, Keb Mo, North Mississippi Allstars, Bernard Allison, Ana Popovic, Cedric Burnside, Mr. Sipp, Colin James, Selwyn Birchwood, Ghost Town Blues Band, Blind Mississippi Morris and more.

“This year’s lineup reflects the broad musical tastes of our festival goers with a diverse lineup of some of today’s hottest artists as well past festival favorites and stars of tomorrow,” said Jim Holt, President and CEO of Memphis In May in a statement. “At the Beale Street Music Festival, we endeavor to offer something for almost every musical taste, and we have a few more surprise additions to come.”

Check out the full lineup below.

28 Feb 2023

Kendrick Lamar, Caroline Polachek, Blur, Rosalia Set for 2023 Roskilde Festival

The 2023 Roskilde Festival in Denmark will feature headlining sets from Blur, Kendrick Lamar, Queens of the Stone Age, Christine and the Queens, Rosalía and others. Organizers announced a slew of new additions to the line-up on Monday (Feb. 27), including Angélique Kidjo, Caroline Polachek, Weyes Blood, Code Orange, Indigo De Souza and Special Interest. 

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Other previously announced names on the roster for the fest slated to take place between June 24-July 1 are: Burna Boy, Sudan Archives, Big Freedia, GloRilla, Lil Nas X, Central Cee, Fever Ray, Hudson Mowhawke, Tinariwen, Lock Up, Benny Jamz, Clarissa Conelly’s Canon, 070 Shake, Derya Yildrim & Grup Simsek, Alice Glass, Rina Sawayama, Denzel Curry, Tove Lo, Japanese Breakfast, Nikki Lane, First Hate, Fulu Miziki, J.I.D., Rema, Armand Hammer, Billy Woods, Nora Brown and Phelimuncasi.

In a statement, Roskilde’s head of programming, Anders Wahrén, praised the eclectic lineup, saying, “This announcement features some of the most vehement vocalists and powerful performers right now, acts whom in each their own way convey hope, meaning and change. Roskilde Festival has shared a special, decade-spanning bond with artists like Kendrick Lamar and Angélique Kidjo, and they always bring something new to this festival.”

Speaking specifically about Lamar, Wahrén added, “Kendrick Lamar is one of the most requested artists among our festival audience, and he possesses a peerless artistic vision. He is no doubt the most influential rapper of his generation, and we’re excited to welcome him back.”

See the latest lineup announcement below.

28 Feb 2023

Germany’s Recorded Music Market Reports 6% Growth In 2022, Powered by Streaming

BERLIN, Germany — The German music market is doing wunderbar. It grew 6.1% in 2022 over the previous year, to 2.07 billion Euros ($2.19 billion), according to the BVMI, the country’s recorded music trade organization. That’s the fourth consecutive year of growth for the market, as well as the first time in 20 years that the business – valued on retail revenue, including VAT – exceeded two billion Euros.

Although Germany came late to streaming, which didn’t overtake the country’s physical sales until 2018, digital accounted for a full 80.3% of retail revenue in 2022, and streaming came in at 73.3%. Total physical sales accounted for 19.7% of revenue.

The CD is still much healthier here than in most other markets, accounting for a full 12.9% of revenue, which makes it the industry’s second most important product after streaming.

Downloads, which never took off in Germany to the extent that they did in most other European markets, accounted for just 2.2%. Other digital revenue, including video streaming, added up to 4.8% of revenue.

Streaming is gaining fast, too: it grew by 14% compared to 2021, while CD sales declined 17.1%.

Within the physical market, vinyl still lags behind CDs, at an even 6%. That’s a significant difference from the U.S., where vinyl sales revenue long since surpassed that of CDs. (Music DVDs and Blu-ray videos accounted for half a percent of revenue, while other physical products accounted for 0.3%.) As in the U.S., vinyl sales are still growing — they were up 6% by revenue — but not as much as in 2021, when they grew 20.1%. 

“The fact that the German music industry has taken the 2 billion Euro mark for the first time in two decades is good news of far more than symbolic value,” said BVMI chairman and CEO Florian Drücke. “Looking at streaming, it will be exciting to see how the price increases we have seen recently from the first providers will now play out in the wider market and also how short form videos will be able to monetize even more.”

28 Feb 2023

TOMORROW X TOGETHER Perform ‘Sugar Rush Ride’ For a Screaming ‘Late Late Show’ Studio

TOMORROW X TOGETHER aren’t so much the next big thing in K-pop. They’ve already arrived.

The five members wrote their names in the record books with The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION, which blasted to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart earlier this month, their first leader.

Spanning five tracks, the EP is the South Korean vocal group’s third top 10-charting effort, following Minisode 2: Thursday’s Child (No. 4 in 2022) and The Chaos Chapter: Freeze (No. 5 in 2021).

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Everything would appear to be headed in the right direction, and with their first chart crown, TXT was anointed the top musical act in the U.S. by leading the Billboard Artist 100 chart for the first time. With that feat, TXT joins some heady company. The other K-pop acts to top the Artist 100 are BTS, BLACKPINK, SuperM, TWICE and Stray Kids.

Late night TV viewers just caught the rush. On Monday night (Feb. 27), the lads stopped by The Late Late Show With James Corden for a performance of “Sugar Rush Ride,” lifted from TEMPTATION.  

If proof was needed that TXT is hot, James Corden’s intro was drowned out by the wall of sound created by the studio audience. The screams didn’t stop there.  

Watch TXT’s debut U.S. TV performance below.

28 Feb 2023

Spotify Launches U.S. RADAR Songwriters Campaign, Taps Beach Noise

Spotify is putting emerging U.S. songwriters under the RADAR.

The streaming giant this week launches RADAR Songwriter in the United States, its development program which promises a leg-up for its songwriter participants.

Grammy Award-winning songwriting and production team Beach Noise is the first U.S. act to join the program, which is activated following a soft launch last year in several international territories.

Hailing from Stockton and Los Angeles, Beach Noise is the trio of Matt Schaeffer, Johnny Kosich, and Jake Kosich. The creative team has worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Bakar and Baby Keem, and is credited with producing and writing six of the tracks on Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, which bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2022. One of those numbers was “The Heart Part 5,” which collected a brace of rap categories at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

Beach Noise and other songwriters selected for RADAR Songwriters should benefit from a raft of spotlights and promotional pushes across Spotify’s considerable network.

Those selected will appear on a bespoke cover of the RADAR Songwriters playlist (and their recent releases are added to the playlist); they’re featured in both local and global Spotify creative marketing campaigns; participants will receive promotion on Notable, Spotify’s home for songwriters and producers, by way of a dedicated blog post or interview and social support to amplify the news; and their recent releases will be included on the Noteable Releases Playlist.

Also, explains a rep for Spotify, songwriters tapped for the campaign will receive a dedicated “Written By” playlist that will should earn prominent placement in global spots featuring emerging talent such as RADAR and the Songwriters Hub.

Previous international rising talents celebrated by the program include Natali Noor (Sweden), Alessandro La Cava (Italy), Nathan Galante (Mexico), and Chiiild (Canada).

Spotify unveiled RADAR in March 2020, its global emerging artist program that unites the streaming service’s various domestic and international programs under a single name.

Through the pandemic, Spotify’s numbers continued to grow. According to its earning report published earlier this year, the Sweden-based business ended 2022 with 205 million paid subscribers, up 5% from 195 million in Q3. At the same time, Spotify’s total monthly active users (MAUs) reached 489 million, up 7% from 456 million in Q3.

28 Feb 2023

Ed Sheeran Sets Australian Record for Most Tickets Sold to a Show

BRISBANE, Australia — Ed Sheeran’s current stadium tour of Australia is now a record-setter, smashing the attendance mark at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The English singer and songwriter enters the history books by selling more than 107,000 tickets for his concert Friday night (March 3) at the MCG, according to Frontier Touring, which is producing the domestic leg of his + – = ÷ x Tour.

There’s a chance he can break it again. Sheeran will also play the 170-year-old venue on Thursday night, for which he has sold more than 100,000 tickets with a final batch now up for sale.

“Ed loves to break a record and he’s smashed this one,” comments Matt Gudinski, CEO of Mushroom Group, parent of Frontier Touring. “It’s phenomenal that more than 200,000 people will see this amazing show at our iconic MCG. Melbourne is set for two incredibly special nights with one of the greatest performers ever.”

The MCG is hallowed turf, a multi-purpose space that has hosted countless sporting matches and concerts since it was constructed on its current site in 1853.

The G, as it’s affectionately known here, hosted the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1956 Olympic Games, it’s the spiritual home of AFL, a Test cricket ground, and its presented concerts by the biggest names in music, from David Bowie to U2, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones, Madonna and many others.

Sheeran and Gudinski celebrated the achievement with a toast to the company’s founder, the late Michael Gudinski, father of Matt Gudinski. The pair flanked the permanent statue of MG outside of Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, and shared a bottle of Penfolds.

“Toasting a 707 to the big man ahead of playing the biggest ticketed shows ever in Australian history this weekend,” writes Sheeran on his social channels.

“We miss you, you finally got me playing MCG in the round.”

When Sheeran completes his two-night stand at the MCG, his + – = ÷ x Tour of Australia and New Zealand moves on to Adelaide Oval (March 7) and climaxes March 12 at Perth’s Optus Stadium, the final in a 12-date trans-Tasman trek.

History is often made when Sheeran and Frontier Touring team up.

When Sheeran last toured Australia with Frontier Touring, in 2018, more than 1 million tickets were sold, a feat that sunk Dire Straits’ record for a single trek (950,000) that had stood for more than 30 years. Sheeran’s Divide tour that year also set a new record of 18 stadium dates across Australia and New Zealand, beating AC/DC’s old mark (14).