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In honor of Aaron Carter, who died at the beginning of November, his twin sister, Angel Conrad, and Lance Bass are co-hosting a charity concert to raise awareness for mental health.
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In a lengthy Instagram message posted on her birthday on Wednesday, Conrad expressed the heartache of losing her twin brother and remembering the last moment she spoke with him, saying, Carter’s death “was the worst day of [her] life.”
“Almost 11 years ago, I lost my sister, Leslie. I remember feeling broken, confused, and I questioned how I was going to continue on without her in my life … And now, over a decade later, I am forced to once again deal with the extreme grief of the death of a sibling. This time, it’s my beloved twin, Aaron. We had an indescribable bond … and now … he is gone,” Conrad wrote in the post.
She went on to say, “It feels unfair … I feel too young to carry the weight of losing two of my siblings. When we lost Leslie, I was blindsided and shocked. With Aaron, however, we had tried everything.”
Conrad says she spoke with Carter two days before he died, noting that she didn’t realize it would be the last time. She explained that she begged Carter to let them help him.
“And now, I sit here on our birthday, trying to navigate this unimaginable loss because of untreated mental illness and the addiction that it led to,” Conrad said in the lengthy post.
The Aaron’s Party (Come Get It) singer died on Nov. 5. He was 35. At the time, a representative from his management team confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Carter was found dead in his California home. No cause of death has been revealed.
“I have loved him [Carter] since we were born … it feels like a piece of my soul is gone. And yet, despite all this pain, his passing has lit a fire within me. I feel a calling and responsibility to help other families and continue the conversation to further break the stigmas that surround mental illness,” Conrad added.
The “Songs for Tomorrow” benefit concert is set for Jan. 18, 2023, in West Hollywood. Conrad said that all proceeds will be donated to On Our Sleeves, a national movement to break stigmas around children’s mental health.
Bass also posted on his Instagram Story Wednesday, saying that it is “going to be such a special event” and that he is “glad to be apart of this.” He ended it, adding, “Aaron would be so proud.”
At the concert, there will be special performances and appearances by Nick Carter, members of the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, members of O-Town and LFO, Ryan Cabrera, B. Howard and more. Find more information on the charity concert here.
In November, Nick Carter also launched a mental health fund in his brother’s memory to benefit On Our Sleeves.
This article originally appeared in THR.com.
LeAnn Rimes’ has an unwelcome early Christmas surprise — a bleed on her vocal cord which has caused her to delay several concerts.
In a social post, the country star explains how, during her recovery from flu, doctors found another ailment.
“It completely and utterly breaks my heart to have to announce that I will be rescheduling this weekend’s shows,” reads a handwritten letter posted to Instagram.
“While sick with the flu, my doctor discovered a bleed on my vocal cord, caused by the violent cough that came along with being sick. I am getting better, but I am unable to talk or sing… doctor’s orders!”
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The message continues, “I am devastated to have to do this as there was nothing more that I was looking forward to than celebrating the holidays with you. Please check your emails for rescheduled information and I will see you very soon.”
Rimes’ show Friday (Dec. 9) at the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort is rescheduled for Sept. 29, 2023, and her concert at the The Ryman Auditorium on Saturday will now take place April 8, 2023.
The 40-year-old singer and songwriter’s Joy: The Holiday Show trek is scheduled to continue Dec. 16 at Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, OR.
Rimes has been in the public eye since her early teens.
In February 1997, at age 14, Rimes won two Grammys – best new artist and best female country vocal performance for “Blue.” She is, to this day, the youngest individual Grammy winner in a lead role. Ten months later, she was named artist of the year at the Billboard Music Awards. She has won 12 BBMA Awards in total.
Also, Rimes has won two Country Music Association Awards, three Academy of Country Music Awards, one Dove Award and two World Music Awards, and more.
She has tallied two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in 1997 – Unchained Melody: The Early Years and You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs, and five leaders on Top Country Albums – those two LPs plus Blue (1996), LeAnn Rimes (1999) and I Need You (2001).
In October of this year, Rimes received the ASCAP Golden Note Award in a special ASCAP Experience, soon after the release of her latest studio album God’s Work.
Kanye West has had a lot to say over the past few months, facing backlash over his antisemitic interviews and social media posts since early October, but the one place he hasn’t been sounding off is in song.
That changed Wednesday (Dec. 7) when Ye posted a new song titled “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” which samples Donny Hathaway’s 1973 song of the same name, to his Instagram and also shared it with Alex Jones to play on his far-right talk show InfoWars.
The lyrics address much of the last two months’ controversy, including his strained relationship with ex-wife Kim Kardashian and his now-banned Twitter account.
“Tweeted deathcon, now we past three,” he repeats to end the song, referencing the antisemitic tweet that first got him banned on the now-Elon Musk-run Twitter.
After causing ire with “White Lives Matter” T-shirts in early October at Paris Fashion Week, West tweeted that he was going to go “death con 3” on Jewish people on Oct. 16. This kicked off a string of hate-speech-filled interviews that alienated his many business partners (Adidas, Gap, CAA and more dropped him) and fans alike (the r/Kanye subreddit account has begun sharing educational literature about the Holocaust and posts about his sometime rival Taylor Swift instead of Ye news). The interviews reached an even more disturbing level last week when West appeared on Jones’ InfoWars and said “I see good things about Hitler,” among other harmful statements.
On the music front, West’s most recent album, Donda 2, was released in February. He’s also featured on a few tracks from other artists, including Cardi B’s “Hot Sh–,” also featuring Lil Durk, from July.
See the lyrics (as posted on West’s Instagram) below:
VerifiedWaking up toI can’t do this anymore textAnd The Bible saidI can’t have anymore sexTill marriageAnd no drip till ParisAnd the meek shall flurishSo where is my arisYou wouldn’t understandHow thin this air isfriends just staringAnd everyone’s a KarenWhen they claim they care andWasn’t given a fair handGetting calls from parentsGod calls for prayer rantsTemptation at a mere glanceI forgot what fear isI forgot what fear isI forgot what fear isOther than the fear off almighty yashuaWho knew yaBefore you knew who you was
Wear a Donda teeFor you respond to me
You know honostlyYall all honor me
I know it’s cause the headlinesWhy she wanna leave
You know I follow GodSo you should follow me
I ain’t never rock with none of y’all no wayAnd I’m pulling up in that white OJAnd the watch filled up with OshaysThat’s Jackson cause it’s nastyTweeted deathconNow we past threeTweeted deathconNow we past three
The American Music Fairness Act (AMFA), which would require AM/FM stations to pay performance royalties to music creators and copyright holders for radio airplay in the U.S., just cleared a key hurdle in Congress — though the bill is unlikely to pass before the new session of Congress convenes in January.
In a mark-up session on Wednesday (Dec. 7), the House Judiciary Committee (which deals with copyright matters) voted to advance the bill, clearing its way for a full vote on the House floor. To become law, the bill would need to be approved by the full House of Representatives as well as the Senate and then signed into law by President Biden. However, the proposed legislation is unlikely to pass in the current session of Congress, which is drawing to a close at the end of the month, unless it’s tacked onto a must-pass bill during the lame duck period.
In an opening statement prior to the vote, Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) noted that bipartisan negotiations over the AMFA in recent months “stalled and never reached a resolution,” though he expressed confidence the bill could make it through the next Congress.
“While today’s debate is an important start in this conversation, if the American music Fairness Act has not become law this Congress, negotiations must resume next year,” Jordan said. “We believe there’s a deal to be struck here that is fair to all sides most importantly, fair to taxpayers and consumers.”
The AMFA is just the latest attempt by members of Congress to compel radio stations to pay performance royalties, which is a common practice in other countries but has not historically been required in the U.S. In Nov. 2019, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) introduced a similar bill, the Ask Musicians for Music Act, which would have allowed artists and copyright owners to negotiate performance royalty rates with radio stations in exchange for permission to play their music. That piece of legislation followed a previous bill, the Fair Play Fair Pay Act — also introduced by Blackburn and Nadler — that set out to achieve the same goal.
The AMFA was introduced in the House by Reps. Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) in June 2021, with the legislation announced during a press conference attended by singers Dionne Warwick and Sam Moore and Dropkick Murphys singer/bassist Ken Casey. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) this past September.
Unlike satellite/online radio and streaming services, AM/FM stations pay only songwriter royalties on the music they broadcast. To rectify that, the AMFA legislation would establish fair market value for radio performance royalties in the same way it has been for those other platforms.
The bill was a response to the Local Radio Freedom Act, a non-binding resolution introduced in May 2021 by Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) that opposes the imposition of a performance royalty, which proponents argue would be financially devastating for broadcasters. A companion resolution was introduced in the Senate by Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and John Barrasso (R-WY). Both resolutions are backed by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which has long been opposed to enforcing a performance royalty payout on terrestrial radio.
In a statement on Wednesday’s vote, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. called it “an important step,” adding, “I am grateful to Chairman Nadler, Rep. Issa, and members of the committee for supporting the music community’s right to fair pay. It is vital to the health of our industry that creators are compensated for the use of their intellectual property on terrestrial radio, and the Recording Academy will continue to advocate for AMFA until this bill is signed into law.”
The Recording Academy is a key supporter of the AMFA along with organizations including the AFL-CIO, the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the American Federation of Musicians, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), SAG-AFTRA, SoundExchange and the musicFIRST Coalition. Over the past several weeks, more than 100 artists including Warwick, Common, Harry Belafonte, Jack White, Becky G, Cyndi Lauper and Gloria Estefan have signed their names to a letter urging lawmakers to support the bill.
“To be clear, this fight is far from over,” said musicFIRST chairman and former Democratic congressman Joe Crowley in a statement. “We still have further to go before this important bill can be passed into law and improve the lives of artists across this country, and we know that Big Radio corporations will continue to oppose us every step of the way.”
In his own statement celebrating Wednesday’s vote, SoundExchange president and CEO Michael Huppe called on the full House to pass the bill. “Tens of thousands of music creators – our family, friends, and neighbors – are counting on Congress to do the right thing and help them get paid for their work. We cannot let them down,” he said.
On the other side of the issue, NAB CEO and president Curtis LeGeyt thanked the committee members who voted against advancing the AMFA, along with members of Congress who have supported the Local Radio Freedom Act resolution that stands in opposition to the bill.
“These lawmakers understand that AMFA will harm local broadcasters and audiences around the country, undermine our ability to serve their communities and ultimately fail artists by leading to less music airplay,” said LeGeyt. “Broadcasters urge the recording industry to join us in serious discussions instead of using the few legislative days left in the calendar to pursue divisive legislation that faces broad congressional opposition.”
To millions of K-pop fans, hello82 has been a destination to watch their favorite idols take on viral challenges, play celebrity babysitter to kids, attempt karaoke in foreign languages and star in other ready-to-share videos. But in the past year, the company behind the multi-language YouTube channels has expanded its e-commerce offerings to better meet its’ viewers’ wants. The results have led to success for the four-year-old company on the Billboard charts and, as of last week, completing their first “tour.”
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When ATEEZ‘s first U.S. shows since 2019 kicked off in January for The Fellowship: Beginning of the End tour, the band was selling out arenas but had yet to break into the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 like many of their K-pop peers. While a relationship with Korean management label KQ Entertainment led to the channel’s top-watched video (an 11-minute prank of ATEEZ member San disguised as a break-dancing senior has over 32 million views), hello82 saw an opportunity to better connect to the band’s ATINY fans directly in the States.
With offices in Los Angeles, hello82 spent 2021 becoming a trusted hub for international K-pop fans to shop for physical album imports, merch, and virtual experiences like live events and artist-fan calls during the pandemic after COVID-19 concerns forced the company to expand into different offerings. Physical-album distribution in the U.S. has helped Korean artists soar high on the Billboard albums chart (largely thanks to being issued in collectible deluxe packages, each with a standard set of items and randomized elements). hello82 saw how expanding their e-commerce channels could create a new business opportunity and simultaneously deliver the same communitive aspect they looked to develop with their video content.
“We just wanted to go meet where the demand was with the supply,” says Sang H. Cho, co-founder of hello82’s parent company KAI Media and its current COO, from his Beverly Hills office. “We just felt like few K-pop groups are well represented and were getting the sort of recognition or credit they deserve when it comes to things like charts. Obviously, we’re a business that wants to make money, but we also understand the fans, their psychology, and their needs too. Having them getting involved and getting them to feel the sense of accomplishment and community. And we obviously knew the opportunity was there for all of us to achieve that together.”
What began in 2021 as distributing two ATEEZ albums from a virtual storefront—September’s Zero: Fever Part.3, which peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard 200, followed by December’s Zero: Fever Epilogue at No. 72—turned into larger ambitions for ATEEZ’s The World EP.1: Movement album released this past July. Not only was this ATEEZ’s first release after reuniting with their ATINY fans during their early 2022 tour, but also ignited a new musical era for the group.
“We saw the potential to make it much, much bigger,” Cho says with his team looking to both traditional, big-box retailers alongside local, fan-driven pop-up stores to activate beyond the virtual.
Chain department stores have been increasingly carrying more K-pop content, but almost exclusively by those with label deals or representation in the U.S. While RCA Records under Sony Music signed ATEEZ in 2019, the group had yet to have its music available in retail stores stateside. (RCA declined to comment by time of publication on its relationship with ATEEZ) With Cho’s background in retail finance, plus other internal relationships, hello82 quickly made inroads.
“There are a couple of retailers that understand and know the K-pop market pretty well: Target is one, Barnes & Nobles is another, and we’ve worked with those two pretty extensively,” Cho says. “Those guys don’t necessarily buy from new suppliers very easily—especially when it comes to physical media, but we were lucky enough to know some people that could get us in front of these buyers fairly quickly in an official manner and make sure we check all the boxes to make sure we’re qualified for them.”
The move instantly connected hello82 and, finally, an ATEEZ album into some of the world’s biggest retail giants. The World EP.1: Movement was available online and in Barnes & Noble stores, plus in online stores for Target, Walmart and FYE. “The margins are thin at these big-box retailers,” Cho says. “But they also give you a lot of coverage and you get a lot more fans who aren’t close to places like big cities so we’re happy about that.” There are hopes for upcoming ATEEZ projects to be in actual Target stores.
Yet perhaps the most meaningful part of their chart goals was creating more than a dozen pop-up stores across the country directly alongside fans. With a hello82 rep at each store, local ATINY volunteered (some reaching out on social media before the company could even make the call for help) after being vetted by the team to help work at their local locations that were decorated with photo walls, giveaways and customized merch.
“We knew that we could probably do a few pop-up stores on our own, but we really wanted to activate the fans and make them one of the stakeholders in the entire campaign,” Cho says of the 19 pop-up stores they held in hotspots like Chicago and Atlanta, but also in smaller cities like Yuma, Ariz. and Southfield, Mich. Utilizing cafes and existing stores (some very familiar to K-pop fans like NYC and LA’s LINE Friends stores that sell BTS‘ BT21 and TREASURE‘s TRUZ products), fans could pick up their copy of The World EP.1, an exclusive box version prepared by hello82, and connect with other ATINY in person.
“Doing pop-ups has its own merits; it can be flexible in terms of locations, timing and all of that,” Cho reflects. “I just feel like K-pop fans in certain areas now deserve a place that they can go to to hang out, not just access to all the products and albums. These fans like to just get together. And it’s not just K-pop fandom, I feel like it’s all most fandoms: I’m a big Philadelphia Eagles football fan and I would go to a sports bar just to hang out with other goofy MFers from Philly.”
The strategy broke ATEEZ through with The World EP.1: Movement opening at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 (behind Beyoncé and Bad Bunny) with 50,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 4, with album sales comprising 47,000 of that total, according to Luminate. The set has earned 86,000 U.S. equivalent album units through Dec. 1.
The first week marked a massive jump from the opening sales of Fever Epilogue (which earned 16,000 units in the first week) and Fever Part.3 (13,000). Along with KAI Media co-founder and current CEO Jae Yoon Choi, Cho emphasizes ongoing dialogue with Billboard and Luminate to ensure “we’re doing everything by the book.”
“It’s the first time for us doing it this scale so obviously there were some hiccups but release week was actually pretty calm,” he recalls. “We kind of knew where we were gonna go, but you never know…when we were at the top of the charts, I mean, we were obviously ecstatic. Not just us, but with the fans that we got a lot of ‘thank-yous’ and ‘great jobs.’ Our community manager who talks to a lot of those guys directly also shared an almost tears-of-joy moment on release day, and then, ultimately, when the charts officially came out. So, it was exciting.”
The company kept that energy alive with pop-up stores throughout the 11 dates in the North American leg of ATEEZ’s The Fellowship: Break the Wall tour, the group’s second tour in 2022 and most expansive run yet. Each of seven cities on the trek, along with two that weren’t on the tour route, set up shop for at least two days each as the official pop-up for tour merchandise.
“After the successful album distribution, we are now distributing merch in association with their upcoming North American tour,” Cho explains. “We have always looked at ourselves as a bridge for management companies between South Korea and the U.S. market, where we can help them connect directly with their fans here and create a lasting fandom.”
Stores in LA and Oakland opened ahead of ATEEZ’s Nov. 7 and 8 shows at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Fans could grab new items like jackets and T-shirts while participating in activities like writing sticky note messages for ATEEZ.
By the tour’s final stop in Toronto on Dec. 2, hello82 showcased what may be their most visible project yet when they played their “Project Star 117 – From ATINY to ATEEZ” video played during the show with on-camera messages from fans and the sticky notes written by pop-up attendees. The band themselves watched with a heartfelt gaze and led to leader Hongjoong crouching down in tears. The official upload video has more than 50,000 views in under five days.
hello82 isn’t a dedicated music-service company, but they watch industry trends and consumer behaviors to consider new business.
“The music industry is now sort of maturing into this real combination of on-demand, ubiquitous consumption of music, but also this very active and passionate sorts of fandom activities as well that drives a lot of commerce,” he adds. “I think all of these things have always been part of music business, but it’s coming back with the vengeance now and we’d like to partake in all of that. The K-pop audience, K-pop fans, they’re sort of at the forefront of all of these activities so, we see a bright financial future and our investors do as well.”
Cho notes that the ATEEZ strategies have caught the interest of other artists and labels looking to impact America. However, the company is interested in partners who will engage heavily with fans and “be a little bit experimental.” There are also hopes for the company to take the business beyond North America and “hopefully, eventually expand out to other underserved markets around the world.”
While Cho and colleagues are directly discussing high-level plans with Team ATEEZ (“Credit goes to KQ for having the foresight and ATEEZ for being a great band—they were kind enough to give us the opportunity, and they were willing to risk a lot”), they are also putting in work at hello82’s retail stores themselves.
“We make sure that everybody does a rotation,” Cho says. “The look and joy you see on fans’ faces—especially when you’re pulling the right photo card for them—that’s what makes our day.”
The filming for the highly anticipated Wicked films is officially underway, according to Instagram Stories from director Jon M. Chu as well as Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, who are set to play Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch, respectively.
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“What a day today has been,” Erivo captioned a blank screen on her Stories on Wednesday (Dec. 7), tagging Grande and Chu. The director, meanwhile, shared an adorable Wicked-themed drawing made by his daughter “to commemorate the first day of shooting.” Grande reposted it, writing, “My heart.”
That’s not all the news going down in the land of Oz this week: Variety revealed that actor Ethan Slater has been cast as Boq, the love interest of Elphaba’s younger sister Nessarose, who later becomes the doomed Wicked Witch of the East. As previously announced, the film also stars Bridgerton‘s Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Elphaba’s romantic interest.
Based on the iconic Broadway musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz, Wicked follows two magical enemies-turned-best friends played by Grande and Erivo. The project will be split into two separate films, the first of which is slated to hit theaters in December 2024.
“We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but two!” Chu revealed in a statement at the time. “With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters.”
She’s practically levitating! Dua Lipa‘s latest wax figure got its grand unveiling on Wednesday (Dec. 7) at Madame Tussauds in New York City.
“I absolutely am honored to have my new wax figure displayed at the world’s greatest wax museum, Madame Tussauds New York in Times Square,” the pop star shared in a statement with Parade. “It has been a privilege to work closely with the artists and creatives on making the figure just right. I hope guests of the museum enjoy her as much as I do!”
Leaning both arms above her head on a giant pink hoop, Lipa’s third figurine is dressed for Studio 2054, the “Don’t Start Now” singer’s livestream concert event held back in late 2020. A few months after that virtual show in support of Future Nostalgia, Dua gave fans a sneak peek at the creation process for the wax figure on Instagram, revealing studio artists “took more than 200 measurements” to get the lifelike statue just right.
Last month, fans started buzzing online over the possibility that Lipa — who was recently granted her Albanian citizenship — has a collaboration with none other than Mick Jagger on the way.
The singer was also on hand in November for Elton John’s final U.S. tour date at Dodger Stadium in L.A. For the special concert, the duo performed their smash Top 10 hit “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix).” The entire show, which also included appearances by Brandi Carlile and Kiki Dee, was broadcast live on Disney+ as Elton John Live From Dodger Stadium.
Get a look at Dua’s new Madame Tussauds creation as well as a glimpse of its making below.
Google released its Year in Search for 2022 on Wednesday (Dec. 7), and the trends in the United States throughout the year paint a picture of the most popular stories, songs and events of the year.
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The top musician that was searched on Google this year was Adam Levine, most likely in connection to his alleged affair with Instagram model Sumner Stroh that made waves throughout the Internet back in September. Following Levine, Mary J. Blige, Lil Tjay, Kendrick Lamar and Migos wrap up the top five.
For people in general, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard both made the top five, as their defamation trial was made available for the public to livestream throughout the spring. Will Smith was also in the top five searched people, as a result of his headline-making incident at the 2022 Academy Awards, during which he stormed the stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face.
As far as songs, the Encanto hit, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” topped the list. The film’s “Surface Pressure” followed, and the TikTok-viral track “Jiggle Jiggle” by Duke & Jones and Louis Theroux. Rounding out the top five are Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ collaboration, “Unholy,” and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House smash, “As It Was.”
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” also came in at No. 3 on the year’s top trends on Google’s “Hum to Search” feature. The top song on that list was Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody (Backstreets Back),” followed by “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.
See Google’s full Year in Search 2022 report here.
In a year historically high inflation has wreaked havoc on the costs of both touring and producing music, musicians and record labels received a bit of reprieve — thanks to high inflation.
The Copyright Royalty Board, which sets royalty rates for some streams in the United States, announced on Dec. 2 that per-stream rates for noninteractive webcasters’ streams will take a big jump in 2023: commercial webcasters will pay 0.3 cents per stream for subscription performances, up 7.1% from 0.28 cents in 2022, and 0.24 cents per stream for ad-supported performances, up 9.1% from 0.22 cents. Non-commercial webcasters’ per-stream royalty rate for 2023 is 0.24 cents for all digital audio transmissions in excess of 159,140 aggregate tuning hours in a month on a channel or station.
The CRB’s calculated the adjustment by multiplying the base rate by the percentage change in the CPI-U published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics before Dec. 1, 2022 (298.012), and the CPI-U for Nov. 2020 (260.229). In 2015, the CRB decided to add an annual cost-of-living adjustment to royalty rates paid for plays of programmed streams for 2016 to 2020. The rates for the current period, 2021 2025, are also adjusted annually. Previously, the CRB established a slate of increasing rates for a five-year period and did not revisit the rates annually.
Artists are ensured to feel the bump in royalty rates because webcasting royalties are paid by streaming services to SoundExchange, which distributes payments directly to performing artists from noninteractive webcasters such as Pandora. In contrast, on-demand services cannot operate under a statutory license and must secure licensing agreements from record labels. So, royalties from on-demand services such as as Spotify and Apple Music are paid directly to labels, which in turn pay artists according to the terms of the recording contract (or don’t pay artists if expenses have not been recouped).
A raise from noninteractive webcasters affects only a minority of an artist’s digital revenues, however. SoundExchange distributions – which also include royalties for performances by satellite radio and cable broadcasters — in the first half of 2022 declined 4.5% year over year to $464.9 million, according to the RIAA. That was about 7.2% of total streaming royalties, down from 34.4% in 2016. Today, most streaming royalties come from paid subscription services, which accounted for $4.5 billion of revenue in the first half of the year and are growing at nearly at double-digit rate.
Still, noninteractive streaming royalties have risen considerably over the years thanks to the cost-of-living adjustments. In 2016, a webcaster such as Pandora paid out 0.22 cents per stream for subscription plays and 0.17 cents for ad-supported plays. Low inflation meant the rates increased only once over the next five years. A new slate of rates for 2021 to 2025 brought the rates to 0.24 cents for subscription plays and 0.21 cents for ad-supported plays in 2021. The cost-of-living adjustments for 2022 took the rates to 0.28 cents and 0.22, respectively.
BTS‘ V has been a superstar in the 2010s and 2020s, but what if he traveled back in time to the ’40s or ’50s?
In the K-pop idol’s photo folio concept film, which arrived on Wednesday (Dec. 7), fans see him donning some of the classy hallmarks of yesteryear in a stunning video. To fit the vintage theme, the video — titled “Me Myself and V, ‘Veautiful Days’” — starts off in a sepia tone before cutting to black-and-white footage of him reading an elaborately bound book in the grass while wearing an all-white suit and a hat with a wide brim.
Some of vintage V’s interests include gazing through telescopes, riding a bicycle through the countryside and spending time with majestic horses.
Fans were impressed by the beauty of the concept film. One Twitter user wrote, “V is breathtakingly beautiful and his old soul comes right through with his concept. Thank you #V…If Tae ever decides to do a period drama/movie (actually I’d watch no matter what) I will be first in line to watch.” Another user added, “Taehyung’s soul is genuine and romantic. It’s elegant, royal and veautiful like I’m lost for words right now.”
The release date for V’s forthcoming book of photos has yet to be announced, but the photo folio gives fans something to look forward to while they wait for his solo album. The K-pop singer hopped on Korean media platform Weverse in March and answered a couple of questions regarding the anticipated release of his solo music. He told an inquiring fan that he will “release it within the year,” according to a translation by Koreaboo.
Watch V’s photo folio in the video above.
