Podcasts
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Ever since Taylor Swift announced The Eras Tour back in November, fans have had a lot of questions. The biggest one: With six albums released since her Reputation Tour back in 2018, how could she possibly do each project justice in a limited setlist?
Well, after she kicked off the first two tour dates on Friday and Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. — or Swift City, ERAzona, as it was ceremonially renamed — we discovered that the setlist wasn’t so limited after all. Over the course of the three-hour-plus concert, Swift performs all or portions of 44 songs.
The 13 Best Moments From Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Kickoff
03/21/2023
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), Katie & Keith are talking all about the much-anticipated tour launch, thanks to on-site reporting from founding Pop Shop host Jason Lipshutz. Plus, we’re looking ahead to our own Pop Shop field trip for this weekend’s Las Vegas dates.
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Rema and Selena Gomez hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 together with “Calm Down,” how Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” is back at No. 1, how both Miley and TWICE make splashy debuts in the top three on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and how women dominate the top of the Billboard 200 in a way we haven’t seen in over a decade.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard’s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard’s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
Questlove won best music podcast of the year at the fifth annual iHeartPodcast Awards on Tuesday (March 14). The virtual event, hosted by actor and comedian Brian Baumgartner, was video-streamed on iHeartRadio’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page and broadcast on iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide and on the iHeartRadio app.
Charlamagne Tha God presented the award to Questlove, host of Questlove Supreme. This adds to Questlove’s growing trophy collection which includes an Oscar for directing Summer of Soul and six Grammys.
Sportscaster Bob Costas opened the 2023 iHeartPodcast Awards.
Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden presented the fan-voted podcast of the year award to Las Culturistas. Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang thanked Marc Maron and Snookie for paving the way in podcasting.
Zach Braff and Donald Faison presented Nicole Byer, host of Why Won’t You Date Me, with best comedy podcast of the year. Alex Borstein later presented Byer with her second award of the night for best overall host.
Comedian Iliza Shlesinger awarded the new best overall ensemble award to Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett of SmartLess.
The show also featured appearances by Mayim Bialik, Colin Cowherd, Malcolm Gladwell, Draymond Green, Bethany Joy Lenz, Enrique Santos, Angela Yee and more.
Executive producers for the 2023 iHeartPodcast Awards are John Sykes, Tom Poleman, Conal Byrne and Bart Peters for iHeartMedia, and Deviants Media Studio founder Ivan Dudynsky and show runner Jayson Belt.
Here’s the full list of 2023 iHeartPodcast Awards winners:
Social Impact Icon Award: Dr. Laurie Santos and Dr. Joy Harden Bradford
Audible Audio Pioneer Icon Award: Kara Swisher
Innovator Icon Award: Ashley Flowers
Podcast of the Year Award: Las Culturistas
Best Overall Ensemble: SmartLess
Best Overall Host: Nicole Byer
Best Music Podcast: Questlove Supreme
Best TV & Film Podcast: Films to be Buried With
Best Pop Culture Podcast: Decoder Ring
Best Business & Finance Podcast: Planet Money
Best Comedy Podcast: Why Won’t You Date Me
Best Crime Podcast: Believe Her
Best Food Podcast: The Sporkful
Best Wellness & Fitness Podcast: Maintenance Phase
Best History Podcast: You’re Wrong About
Best Kids & Family Podcast: Wow in the World
Best News Podcast: The Daily
Best Fiction Podcast: Welcome to Night Vale
Best Sports Podcast: The Draymond Green Show
Best Science Podcast: Radiolab
Best Technology Podcast: Pivot
Best Ad Read Podcast: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Best Political Podcast: NPR Politics Podcast
Best Spanish Language Podcast: Ciudad Mágica
Best Advice & Inspirational Podcast: Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People
Best Beauty & Fashion Podcast: Natch Beaut
Best Travel Podcast: Atlas Obscura
Best Green Podcast: TED Climate
Best Spirituality & Religion Podcast: On Being
Best Branded Podcast: Smart Talks with IBM
Best Emerging Podcast: Sounds Like a Cult
Best International Podcast: El Viaje (Mexico)
More information can be found at iHeartPodcastAwards.com.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour might be opening on Friday night, but the best pop concert of this past weekend was Sunday’s Oscars. Both Rihanna and Lady Gaga performed their best original song nominees at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre for a packed room of movie A-listers — and Billboard was there to see it all.
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Keith peppers Katie with questions about her night at the 95th annual Academy Awards, from arriving at the red carpet through toasting the winners at the Governors Ball afterparty and all the movie moments in between.
Snubs & Surprises at 2023 Oscars
03/14/2023
Listen below:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Morgan Wallen not only has a massive debut atop the Billboard 200 albums chart with One Thing at a Time, but all 36 songs on the album are on the Billboard Hot 100 — setting a new record for the most concurrent songs by a single artist on the chart. One of those songs, “Last Night,” shoots all the way to No. 1 — his first Hot 100 chart-topper. With Miley Cyrus and TWICE on the horizon, can Wallen stay at No. 1 for another week? We talk about all that and more.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
Spotify is launching a TikTok-like vertical-swiped homepage to its mobile app. Though Bloomberg leaked the news last week, the new homepage was officially unveiled by company executives at Spotify’s Stream On event Wednesday (March 8).
The new homepage — unveiled during the demonstration led by Spotify co-president/chief product officer/chief technology officer Gustav Soderstrom — will trade Spotify’s formerly static carousels of playlist and song recommendations in favor of a vertical, swipeable, video-based interactive feed which will automatically play previews of music, podcasts and audiobooks for users in hopes of helping them discover new content.
The top of the homepage will continue to boast a few quick links to help users instantly find their favorite podcasts, audiobooks and playlists.
“When I open my home screen, I won’t have to choose what I might be interested in just based on a cover art that I’ve never seen before, or an episode name I’ve never heard of,” said Soderstrom. “Instead, I can instantly hear the most interesting part of a song or an episode.”
The new video-centric feed, as well as other announcements at Stream On, represent a move away from positioning Spotify as a solely audio-focused company and toward creating a more audiovisual platform. As Spotify CEO Daniel Ek noted in his introduction, “In the past few years, people likely thought of Spotify as being the best destination for listening. But today, this evolution is really about bringing Spotify to life.”
Spotify has spent years trying to assert itself as the world leader in audio products, diversifying its offerings from music to exclusive podcasts, live audio and — most recently — audiobooks. But not all of these pushes have played out well for the company. At least six of its live audio programs, for example, were canceled after roughly a year.
The company began to offer more visuals in recent years to strong success, including adding video capabilities to some podcasts and its Canvas feature which lets artists showcase a looping video to accompany their songs. According to Spotify, songs that use Canvas are 145% more likely to get track shares, while listeners are 5% more likely to continue streaming them.
The Canvas feature will now play an even bigger role at Spotify, Soderstrom noted, as artists’ Canvases will now serve as the visual backdrop for audio previews on the app’s newly designed homepage.
The news of its more interactive, vertical homepage marks Spotify as the latest major tech company to seemingly take cues from TikTok. Instagram and YouTube have made pushes to popularize short-form, vertical video offerings on their sites in the last few years, while on the music side, apps like Discz, a swipeable music discovery service à la Tinder, have proven there’s an appetite for interactive music recommendations. SoundCloud followed suit this week as well, announcing a vertically-based Discover page that uses AI to power tailored recommendations.
Of Ariana Grande’s 72 Billboard Hot 100 hits, nearly half (32) are collaborations. In fact, more than half of her top 10-charting hits — 10 of 19 — are collabs.
Her latest hit team-up is The Weeknd‘s “Die for You” remix, which debuts at No. 1 on the Hot 100 this week — Grande’s fourth collab to top the chart.
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All this to say, Grande is clearly a collaborative queen. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about why Ari and The Weeknd are a potent combination, why she came out of musical retirement for this remix, and what dream duets we’d love to see her tackle next.
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how Karol G makes history atop the Billboard 200, scoring not only her first No. 1 album, but the first No. 1 all-Spanish-language album by a woman.
Plus, the Oscars are this Sunday! Will Rihanna become a first-time winner? Could Lady Gaga take home her second win? Will Austin Butler win best actor for playing Elvis Presley? And what are we going to be watching out for during the show?
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
The areas of the audio marketplace with the highest growth rates don’t involve music or young people. As online listening growth slows and smartphone ownership is nearly ubiquitous, podcasts and audiobooks stand out in Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial 2023 report.
In 2023, weekly podcast listening reached 40% of people aged 12 to 34, up from 33% in 2022; and 39% for the 35-to-54 age group, up from 31% the year before, the report states. The 55-and-over audience remained at 14% after falling from 17% in 2021. The average U.S. podcast listener averages nine podcasts per week, with 19% listening to 11 or more.
Those growth rates contrast with slowdowns in smartphone penetration (now at 91% of the U.S. population), social media usage (flat at 82% of the population for three straight years) and monthly online audio listening (up slightly from 73% in 2022 to 75% this year).
But podcasts appear to have room for more growth. The percentage of people who listened to a podcast in the last month was 42% — 28 percentage points lower than online audio listenership.
About 183 million people — 64% of the U.S. population 12 and over — has ever listened to a podcast. That’s up from 44% of the population five years earlier and 27% a decade ago.
Audiobooks are also growing. The percentage of Americans who listened to an audiobook in the last year rose to 35% of the U.S. population — up from 28% a year earlier — or about 100 million people. Still, there’s lots of room for growth, and companies will likely see that percentage as an opportunity to introduce the format to new listeners.
Podcasts and audiobooks are tangentially related to music in the streaming age. Digital platforms increasingly combine music and non-music content to keep listeners engaged and make the apps more attractive to subscribers. To improve both its product and margins, Spotify has invested handsomely in podcasts — from DIY tools like Anchor and Megaphone to content creators Gimlet, Parcast and The Ringer — as well as audiobooks, through the acquisition of audiobook distribution platform Findaway.
Streaming companies tend to obsess about young consumers, but the growth opportunity appears to lie in older age groups. Edison found that 89% of the 12-34 age group listened to audio online in the previous month, up from 87% in 2022 and 86% in 2021. The 35-54 age group’s monthly listenership rate improved from 72% in 2021 to 81% in 2022 and 85% this year. The 35-54 age group’s podcast listening improved from 43% in 2022 to 51% this year — a big leap, but still below the 12-34 age group’s 55% mark.
The often overlooked 55-and-over age group has significant room to grow. Its monthly online listening rate stands at just 53%, up from 52% in 2022 and 46% in 2021. The age group is also slow to adopt podcasts. Just 21% of people 55 and over listened to podcasts in the last month. Worse yet, the 55-and-over crowd is losing enthusiasm: Its monthly podcast listening rate was 22% last year and 26% in 2021.
The other major trends found in the report reflect smartphone penetration, the prevalence of mobile broadband and the use of mobile operating systems in cars such as Apple CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto. In the last decade, the percentage of U.S. consumers who have listened to AM/FM radio in the car dropped from 84% to 73%, while CD listening declined from 63% to 29%. SiriusXM satellite radio use in the car improved from 15% to 20% over that time, while online audio jumped from 12% to 37% on the same metric.
In January, Jennifer Lopez shared that she was invited to join Madonna‘s unforgettable 2003 MTV Video Music Awards performance — you know, the one where the Queen of Pop shared the stage with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and passed the pop torch with a kiss to each of the stars. Then, last week, P!nk revealed that she was also asked to be part of the performance — and that Gwen Stefani was invited too.
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Who will we find out was invited next? On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are revisiting the lightning-rod moment — don’t forget that Missy Elliott was there too, but was the full “Lady Marmalade” crew invited? — and wondering just what it would have looked like if the stage were a little more crowded.
Listen to the new episode below:
Also on the podcast, we’ve got chart news on how SZA’s SOS hits a milestone 10th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and who her biggest competition might be in the coming weeks. Plus, speaking of P!nk, she lands her ninth top 10-charting set on the Billboard 200 as Trustfall arrives at No. 2. Plus, Taylor Swift achieves a rare feat on the Billboard 200 as the superstar has 10 albums on the chart at the same time — but, who else has managed this unique feat?
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
Even as the U.S. advertising market’s slowdown stunted iHeartMedia’s post-pandemic recovery, the company posted record revenue of $3.9 billion in 2022, up 9.9% from 2021, the company announced on Tuesday (Feb. 28).
“The macro economic conditions are certainly impacting the entire advertising marketplace,” CEO Bob Pittman said during Tuesday’s earnings call. “Even the podcasting industry is not immune to some effects of the advertising slowdown.”
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $950.3 million, up 17.2% year over year. That’s the second-best adjusted EBITDA in the company’s history following 2019 when the company hit $1 billion. Annual free cash flow of $259 million was also the second-best in history after reaching $400 million in 2019.
Podcasts, the company’s fast-growing segment, generated revenue of $358.4 million in 2022, up 41.9% from the prior year. The high-growth podcasting business could benefit from what Pittman called “a transition toward more rational behaviors” in spending. Pittman didn’t point to any specific company, but an era of big spending on podcast content deals appears to be over at Spotify, where chief content officer Dawn Ostroff recently left the company and the head of audio talk shows and partnerships, Max Cutler, also departed. “I think there were people who thought they were buying [market] share, but were really buying losses,” he said.
Digital revenue other than podcasts improved 14% to $663.4 million. Broadcast radio, by far iHeartMedia’s biggest revenue source, grew 4.1% to $1.89 billion. Network revenue was flat at $503.2 million. Revenue from sponsorships and events climbed 17.9% to $189 million. Revenue from the audio and media services group jumped 22.7% to $304.3 million.
In the fourth quarter, iHeartMedia’s revenue grew 6% year over year to $1.13 billion, the high end of guidance of 2% to 6%. Adjusted EBITDA was $316 million, in the middle of its guidance range of $305 million to $325 million. Both revenue and adjusted EBITDA hit record highs for any quarter in the company’s history.
Although the company started 2022 strong, “increased volatility and uncertainty” moderated annual results, Pittman said. Some of that slowdown was “self-inflicted,” he admitted. During the fourth quarter, iHeartMedia put greater emphasis on “sales initiatives and commission structures on targeting certain incremental revenue streams,” he explained. “In retrospect, we believe those decisions had a negative impact on our revenue growth and margin for the quarter.”
As a result, iHeartMedia has “initiated steps to realign” its focus on “higher-margin digital revenue opportunities,” said Pittman. “We believe we’ll start seeing the positive impact of those adjustments in both revenue growth and margins as early as Q2.”
A newly released Linkin Park song hits this week’s Billboard Hot 100, as “Lost” starts at No. 38, marking the band’s first new top 40-charting hit since “Burn It Down” debuted and peaked at No. 30 in 2012.
The track features the lead vocals of the band’s late frontman Chester Bennington, who died in 2017 at age 41.
Linkin Park’s ‘Lost’ Is First Song to Debut at No. 1 on Rock & Alternative Airplay in Over…
02/21/2023
“Lost” — which was recorded during sessions for the band’s 2003 album Meteora and was kept in the vaults until its release this year on Feb. 10 — will be included on a 20th-anniversary deluxe reissue dubbed Meteora 20, due April 7.
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are talking about a swath of posthumous music releases — from Prince, Whitney Houston, 2Pac, Biggie, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Juice WRLD, Pop Smoke and more — and how to weigh the insatiable fan hunger for new music from late legends with the tricky ethics around releasing music without an artist’s blessing. Is there a right and a wrong way?
Listen now:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how SZA’s SOS now has the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart among albums by women in seven years and how Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show yielded some major chart results — including her biggest streaming week ever in the U.S.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
After Rihanna’s hits-filled Super Bowl halftime show performance — and unexpected pregnancy reveal! — what could be next for the superstar?
On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we’re talking all about the buzzy 13-minute set — like what she did perform (“All of the Lights”) and what she surprisingly didn’t (her Oscar-nominated Black Panther song “Lift Me Up”).
Watch Rihanna’s Full 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show
02/15/2023
We’re also wondering: Where does the halftime show go from here? Who could be next year’s headliner? We’ve got questions! So listen to our full chat below.
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on SZA’s SOS bouncing back to No. 1 for an eighth total week on the Billboard 200 albums chart, how a whopping 35 albums all see unit gains on the list thanks in part to the Grammy Awards’ broadcast, and how best new artist winner Samara Joy jumps to No. 1 on multiple charts after her surprise win.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)