Podcasts
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Beyoncé played three sold-out nights at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., over the holiday weekend — and Billboard was there for all three shows. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we’ve put together a roundtable discussion about the trio of concerts with Gail Mitchell, Billboard‘s executive director, R&B/hip-hop; Cat Johnson, Billboard‘s business development and […]
As the Hollywood strikes continue, five of the most popular late-night talk show hosts had an idea to meet up every week to discuss the complexities behind the ongoing discussions and protests. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news As a result, Spotify revealed on Tuesday (Aug. 29) […]
This past Friday, we got new music from three of the biggest child TV stars-turned-pop superstars ever: Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande. Gomez put out the carefree pop song “Single Soon,” Cyrus released the reflective ballad “Used to Be Young,” and Grande put out a 10th-anniversary digital deluxe edition of her debut album […]
The 2024 Super Bowl isn’t until Feb. 11, and while we don’t know who will perform at the halftime show yet, we know at least one person who won’t: Ed Sheeran. The singer/songwriter did an interview with Andy Cohen last week and when he was asked about headlining the Super Bowl, he suggested he’d be […]
LiveOne will capitalize on the booming podcast industry by spinning off its PodcastOne business as a standalone entity through a dividend to shareholders as of August 28, the company announced Thursday. PodcastOne shares were approved for listing on the Nasdaq exchange on Monday (Aug. 14) and will begin trading under the “PODC” symbol on Sept. 8.
LiveOne, which also owns the music streaming platform Slacker Radio, will issue a dividend of about 19% of PodcastOne shares to its shareholders and retain the remaining roughly 81% of the outstanding shares. LiveOne CEO Robert Ellin said he expects PodcastOne stock will be priced between $8 — the minimum price for Nasdaq-listed stocks — and $12 per share. A third-party valuation of PodcastOne in February put the company at between $230 million and $274 million.
“We will be very aggressive to continue to grow that and it’s a big part of the reason we’re taking the company public,” Ellin said during a conference call for investors on Thursday (Aug. 17). The company currently has a pipeline “of over 10 additional acquisitions that we’re carefully taking a look at,” he added.
PodcastOne has a number of popular podcasters including Adam Carolla, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Jordan Harbinger. It ranked 10th in Podtrac’s publisher ranking for July 2023. Last week, LiveOne obtained the exclusive network distribution and advertising rights to comedian Brendan Schaub’s portfolio of podcasts including The Schaub Show and The Fighter.
PodcastOne already has two important acquisitions in 2023. LiveOne entered into a letter of intent to acquire Kast Media, a podcast network expected to add up to $10 million in annual revenue and boost earnings for PodcastOne. The company also has a binding letter of intent to acquire Guru Fantasy Reports, owner of fantasy football website Fantasy Guru, that Ellie said he expects will close “in the next few weeks.” The all-stock deal is expected to add annual revenue of $2.5 million and over $600,000 in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
PodcastOne had revenue of $10.6 million in the quarter ended June 30, accounting for roughly 38% of LiveOne’s total revenue. Last week, LiveOne raised its guidance for PodcastOne’s full fiscal year revenue from $34 million to a range of $42 million to $47 million.
Separately, LiveOne also plans to make Slacker Radio a standalone, publicly traded entity through a merger with Roth CH Acquisition V Co., a special purpose acquisition company. LiveOne and Roth have signed a letter of intent but no merger date has been announced. LiveOne said it expects Slacker to have a pre-money valuation of $160 million.
Peter Case hasn’t done a coast-to-coast tour with a band since 1989 — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Part of the reason is financial, the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. His national tour in support of his second solo album, The Man With the Blue Post-Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar, was “a fun tour” but “a bad deal on a van that we’d rented,” and a few canceled shows for health reasons meant the outing lost money. So after talking to his agent, Case went back on the road as a solo act. This time, though, Case came home with more money than he spent.
The way Case sees it, musicians have long toured as solo artists for the financial benefits. “Part of the reason Woody Guthrie played solo all the time was because he couldn’t afford a band,” says Case, who released his 16th solo album, Doctor Moan, in January through Sunset Blvd. Records and is the subject of the 2023 documentary Peter Case: A Million Miles Away, directed by Fred Parnes.
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Case, a native of upstate New York, was influenced by solo musicians since his formative days spent in San Francisco, where he went from busking on street corners to co-founding the band The Nerves in 1976, and later Los Angeles, where he co-founded The Plimsouls in the 1979.
“I came from a time when solo players were really a thing,” he says. “I remember going to see James Taylor in 1969, I think it was. He would just play solo, you know, and he’d be great. He was a really great guitar player. He had really good songs on his first couple albums. It was great. Or you’d see John Hammond Jr. and he’d be rocking the house, stomping his feet and blowing this incredible harmonica. He played 12-string guitar and he was great. I saw [American folk singer] Dave Van Rock. I saw [singer-songwriter] Laura Nyro play solo. I saw [blues musician] Lightnin’ Hopkins play solo.”
Case likens his first solo shows, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, to “throwing a cat into a tub of cold water.” The audience at the intimate venue wasn’t going to be “blown away by the lights and the smoke and the volume” of his amplifier. All he had was his guitar and his songs. As the musician John Hiatt once told him, “When you play solo, it really plugs you into the worth of what you’re writing.”
Listen to the Behind the Setlist’s interview with Peter Case below, or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeart, Amazon Music, Audacy, Podbay, Podtail and Audible.
On her new song “bad idea right?,” Olivia Rodrigo tries to talk herself out of a late-night reunion with her ex — with “talk” being the operative word. The latest taste of Rodrigo’s upcoming sophomore album GUTS (due Sept. 8) dropped last week, and the verses and chorus are almost exclusively spoken, with only a […]
Taylor Swift goes back to December all the time, and the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast crew goes back to The Eras Tour all the time — or at least twice. On the latest episode, Katie & Keith talk all about hitting SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., for Night 4 of Swift’s epic Eras Tour, just […]
It’s the first day of August, which has us thinking about Taylor Swift’s timely song “August” from her 2020 album Folklore. Folklore was surprise-released on July 24, 2020 — so just ahead of August that year — and in the Augusts since, we’ve seen the song re-emerge on various Billboard charts timed to the month. […]
Since the end of the 13-year conservatorship that controlled her personal and professional lives, Britney Spears has released two new songs: her “Hold Me Closer” duet with Elton John last year and, on Friday, “Mind Your Business” with will.i.am. On the latest Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about the new (or […]