Radio
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Back before satellite radio launched at the turn of the millennium, the best an artist could hope for was that their label’s radio team could help get their songs on playlists at as many terrestrial stations as possible, as often as possible.
But following the launch of the XM and Sirius satellite radio services in 2001 and 2002, respectively, a new paradigm emerged that allowed artists the possibility of hosting their own bespoke channels — on which they could play their hits and deep cuts, as well as songs by their influences, while chatting up their latest releases.
The new format kicked off, naturally, with Elvis Radio in 2004 on Sirius. That was followed by Sirius’ first artist pop-up channel, the Bruce Springsteen-focused E Street Radio, in November 2005, which ultimately went full-time in 2007 and continues to this day.
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The trend continued following the 2008 merger of the Sirius and XM satellite services. Since then, SiriusXM has hosted full-time channels by big-name artists including Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Pitbull, Eminem, Bob Marley, Diplo, The Beatles, Jimmy Buffett, Grateful Dead, Phish, Frank Sinatra and dozens of others. The service has also collaborated with artists including Green Day, Beastie Boys, Jonas Brothers, Metallica, Linkin Park, Luke Bryan, Coldplay, Usher and Billie Eilish on shorter-run pop-up stations.
So why have artists flocked to the service to claim their own spots on the satellite dial?
For some, having their own SiriusXM channel can serve as a valuable promotional vehicle for a forthcoming release. Lady Gaga, who had a short-run “Gaga Radio” channel in February ahead of her blockbuster Mayhem album, tells Billboard it was “a reflection of the sounds that shaped Mayhem, the artists who move and inspire me, and the emotional connection I share with my fans,” adding that “every song you hear was handpicked — not by an algorithm, but by me.”
Marcus Mumford — whose band Mumford & Sons is the newest act to have a short-run channel, tied to the release of its new album Rushmere — says his group “leapt” at the chance to celebrate their music and look back at their catalog, live performances and collaborations over the years. “As artists now we can’t show up expecting to get people’s attention… there’s less gatekeeping, which is a good thing, so you really have to put in the work,” he tells Billboard. While taking extra time to sit with SiriusXM staffers to record the stories behind the band’s songs and curate the channel during the rush of Rushmere promotional duties, was, in his words, “not ideal,” he says the group was up for the hard work it takes. “We love going where people are,” he says.
“The feedback we get labels or artists when they do these pop-up channels has been really outstanding, so I think there are other aspects beyond increasing consumption numbers,” says SiriusXM head of music Steve Blatter when asked if there’s specific market data he can point to that illustrates a Colbert-like “SiriusXM bump” for either the long-running or time-limited channels (he notes that the company does not share any details on the financial arrangements for its artist channels).
For other artists, particularly those who have year-round stations on the satellite service, it’s less about promoting a project than about promoting a catalog, or even a culture. When LL Cool J launched his year-round Rock the Bells Radio channel in 2018, he wasn’t interested in just putting his name on a channel — he wanted to preserve and elevate timeless hip-hop. “[I] personally went through thousands of tracks to shape something real for the culture,” he says. “Every song, every interview, every moment you hear is chosen with intention.”
Tom Petty‘s daughter, Adria Petty, says that when her dad heard Bob Dylan doing his “Theme Time Radio Hour” shows on SiriusXM’s Deep Tracks channel from 2006 to 2009 — on which the rock bard told rambling stories and played songs around a particular theme — it led him to approach SiriusXM about starting his own channel, realizing the free format would allow him to do something other than talk about his music and lyrics, which “he found to be a hassle,” she says.
While Petty was alive, the channel also gave Petty’s fellow Heartbreakers band members the chance to come on and do their own shows and play deep cuts, live tracks and rarities. “It was that idea that DJs are people who create and curate culture and have fun in communion with people,” says Adria, adding that before her father died in 2017 at age 66, he told her the channel was a crucial part of his legacy.
Today, Adria says the channel not only heightens her dad’s catalog consumption but functions as the “heart and soul” of the estate. The 24-hour channel’s constant presence on the virtual dial impacts the catalog “in a big way,” she says, because there’s a whole team dedicated to programming it, which can help promote re-issues and archival releases.
“When you have an artist produce their channel in the manner we do, it’s not just about spinning their music, but about shaping a culture and cultivating the artist’s fan community and really presenting their legacy in a way that’s very authentic and credible to that artist,” says Blatter. Since Carrie Underwood’s year-round Carrie’s Country channel launched in 2023, it’s been an “amazing avenue” for the country star to connect with her fans, says her manager, The HQ’s Ann Edelblute, who adds that connection “is extremely important to her and the reason she signed on.” Since the launch of Carrie’s Country, the superstar has launched two additional streaming-only channels: Carr-dio by Carrie, featuring the country star’s workout picks; and Savior Sunday Daily, which has a mix of uplifting faith-based country and gospel.
“Both [of the additional channels] allow her to go deeper into areas that she and the fans love,” says Edelblute. “The three channels are a great creative outlet for her as well, as she regularly curates new playlists and loves being able to create new content and special programming year-round.”
Not everyone can have a year-round channel, however. Satellite-distributed services such as SiriusXM have a limited bandwidth to work with, says Blatter, so there’s a fixed number of channels they can offer; any time they add a new channel, they have to drop something else. “I’d love to offer a lot more artists their own year-round channels, but it’s challenging to do so…so the bar to get your own year-round channel becomes fairly high,” he says. Another key factor in who gets a spot is whether an artist’s body of work can hold up to being a year-round draw, according to Blatter. This can include legacy acts like the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Springsteen, Grateful Dead and Phish as well as contemporary artists such as Eilish and Lizzo.
As for audience size, Blatter says even the artist channels with the smallest audiences are well-trafficked, though he declined to provide any hard numbers. (A spokesperson for SiriusXM says the company does not publicly share listenership data.)
At this point, SiriusXM has 46 year-round artist partner channels, though a few legendary acts with deep catalogs such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Dolly Parton and Beyoncé are noticeably absent from the permanent lineup (though all except Beyoncé have had limited-run channels in the past). Blatter says he’d love to expand the company’s relationship with any of those artists (or artist estates) into something bigger, noting that sometimes it’s the talent’s choice to only commit to a short-run channel to promote an album release or documentary.
Sometimes it comes down to resources and the artist only wanting to have a presence during a specific promotional window. Or, in the case of a somewhat niche act like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, realizing that interest will peak during the Christmas holiday and then likely drop off shortly after, making a quick hit channel more realistic.
For Mumford, having a SiriusXM channel is a way to engage with fans on a deeper level amid a surge in short-form content that perhaps underestimates audiences’ attention spans. “A lot of your publicity has to be shortened into snippets… yet people’s capacity and attention is greater than ever — they’ll sit and watch 10 hours of a Netflix show,” he says. “I think people want to hear stories in whatever form they come… it felt like a wider palette to paint with.”
Audacy has announced a slate of executive changes, with Kelli Turner appointed as president and CEO, while Chris Oliviero has been named chief business officer, and Bob Philips named as chief revenue officer.
Turner had been serving as interim president and CEO since January, after former Audacy chief David Field stepped down, and has served on the Audacy board since September 2024. Turner most recently served as managing director and CFO for Sun Capital Partners, and previously served as president and COO for Blackstone-owned music licensing and rights management SESAC Holdings. She has also served in various executive and leadership roles in the investment and media industries, including RSL Group, Martha Stewart Living, Time Warner, Allen & Company and Citigroup.
Oliviero was most recently market president for Audacy New York, and Philips was president of Audacy Networks and multi-market sales.
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“On behalf of the Audacy board, we are delighted that Kelli Turner has agreed to take on the permanent President and CEO role and lead Audacy through its next phase of reinvention and growth,” Michael Del Nin, chairman of Audacy, said in a statement. “She is an exceptional media executive who, along with Chris Oliviero and the rest of the Audacy team, will ensure we continue to invest in high-quality content to engage our audiences and provide best-in-class solutions to our partners.”
“It’s a privilege to lead Audacy at this exciting moment in its impressive history and the evolution of audio,” Turner added. “This is one of the most dynamic businesses in media and entertainment, and I am looking forward to partnering with Chris Oliviero and all of our teams to build on our momentum with audiences, creators and advertisers. I’m especially excited by the appointments of Chris and Bob, who know Audacy’s businesses inside out and whose track records in management, programming and sales are second to none.”
Oliviero has served as market president in New York since 2020 and previously spent over 23 years at CBS Radio (which became part of Audacy in 2017). Philips joined CBS Radio in 1996 and later took on the role of CRO for CBS Radio and Entercom. After Entercom’s rebranded as Audacy in 2021, Philips transitioned into his most recent role.
Audacy has also announced several departures, including COO Susan Larkin, chief digital officer J.D. Crowley, chief marketing officer Paul Suchman and executive vp and general counsel Andrew Sutor.
Mike Dash, who has been with Audacy’s companies for nearly 20 years, has been named executive vp and general counsel, and will succeed Sutor, who will stay on for a transition period.
When Island/Republic/MCA Nashville released Chappell Roan’s “The Giver” on March 12, the move extended a pop/country crossover trend that has seen the likes of Shaboozey, Beyoncè and Post Malone successfully hop genre fences.
As current as the development may be, it’s also a case of history repeating. The release comes 50 years after Freddy Fender’s “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” reigned on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated March 15. “Teardrop” went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 on May 31, 1975, in the midst of a crossover wave.
“That song just caught fire,” says Country Music Hall of Fame member Joe Galante, who handled marketing for RCA Nashville at the time. “It sold, and that was one thing that made it difficult for people to walk away from, was the sales numbers. Even as a competitor, I was sitting there going, ‘How the hell is this happening?’ And you start looking at the numbers and you went, ‘Well, that’s how it’s happening.’ ”
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Fender’s success was not an isolated example in 1975. From March 8 through June 7 that year, four different singles reached the Hot 100 summit while simultaneously becoming country hits: Fender’s “Teardrop,” Olivia Newton-John’s “Have You Never Been Mellow,” B.J. Thomas’ “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” and John Denver’s“Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”
When Fender was at No. 1, at least seven more titles on that same country chart made significant inroads on the Hot 100 and/or the Easy Listening chart (a predecessor of adult contemporary), including Jessi Colter’s “I’m Not Lisa,” Elvis Presley’s “My Boy” and Charlie Rich’s “My Elusive Dreams.” Additionally, Linda Ronstadt peaked at No. 2 on country with the Hank Williams song “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You),” weeks ahead of the crossover follow-up “When Will I Be Loved.”
Throughout the rest of 1975, the country crossover trend continued with Newton-John’s “Please Mister Please,” Fender’s “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” The Eagles’ “Lyin’ Eyes,” Tanya Tucker’s “Lizzie and the Rainman” and C.W. McCall’s “Convoy.”
Then, as now, plenty of fans and critics debated if some of those titles belonged on the country station.
“For me, the answer to ‘What is country?’ is: the records that the country audience, at that time, thinks belong on a country radio station,” says Ed Salamon, a Country Radio Hall of Fame member who became PD in 1975 of WHN New York.
Salamon programmed plenty of crossover music, sometimes incorporating songs that weren’t being promoted to the station, in an effort to appeal to a metro audience that didn’t have much history with the genre.
WHN became a major success story — just five years later, the Big Apple got a second country radio station — but its crossover mix yielded as much hostility from Nashville as praise. Part of that was directly related to the corporate source of some of the records on the playlist: Denver, Newton-John and The Eagles were all signed out of New York or Los Angeles.
“There was such a pushback about what I did that I didn’t fully comprehend it at that time,” Salamon reflects. “I was taking the space that the Nashville label thought should go to one of their records on a country radio station, and I was giving it to the pop division.”
Exactly one year after Fender topped the country chart, crossover material in 1976 had subsided. The number of crossover singles was the same, but none of them had the same level of impact.
“It’s the luck of the draw,” says Country Radio Hall of Fame member Joel Raab, a consultant and former programmer for WHK Cleveland.
Two of those 1976 crossovers, Cledus Maggard’s “The White Knight” and Larry Groce’s “Junk Food Junkie,” were novelty records, distinguishing them from the 1975 batch.
“We’d seen success in the crossover the year before,” recalls Country Radio Hall of Fame member Barry Mardit, whose programming history included WEEP Pittsburgh and WWWW Detroit. “If those songs weren’t consistently coming, we were therefore looking for something else that would grab the ear, that would grab the attention of the listener, like a novelty song does.”
Crossover records would continue through the rest of the ’70s, with Crystal Gayle, Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbitt and a couple of Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson duets benefiting. In most cases, those happened when one or more label executives were enthusiastic enough to take a risk. Record companies had to be judicious since radio stations relied heavily on local sales reports for research.
“You had to have product in stores in order for people to do sales checks,” Galante notes. “So it wasn’t as simple as just saying, ‘Oh, I think I’ll go do this.’ You’ve got to get the goods in stores, and if it didn’t move and they [were returned], you got a double whammy. And you’d spent the money. So you were careful about your shots, and you didn’t go willy-nilly trying to cross over a record.”
Similarly, artists often err when they purposely attempt to cross over. It’s an issue that country learned the hard way in the aftermath of the 1980 Urban Cowboy soundtrack.
“The Urban Cowboy sound was a moment,” Raab says. “It wasn’t a trend. It was just a bunch of really good hit songs that went with a movie — and those songs, by the way, were all pretty country: [Johnny Lee’s] ‘Looking for Love’ and [Mickey Gilley’s]‘Stand by Me.’ These were just really good country records. And because the movie was so popular, [some artists] said, ‘Oh, you know, I’ll be more pop.’ And they made these really bad pop-sounding records in the early to mid-’80s.”
The 2025 version of crossover is a little different — streaming data has helped identify the songs that work across formats, influencing the trajectory for music by Morgan Wallen, Ella Langley & Riley Green, Marshmello & Kane Brown, HARDY, Jelly Roll and Dasha.
Artists are interacting more freely across genre, with pairings of Kelsea Ballerini & Noah Kahan, Thomas Rhett & Teddy Swims and Post Malone & Wallen all on the current Hot Country Songs chart. And, Galante points out, country acts are playing stadiums and arenas in major markets, unlike in the ’70s, when they were mostly in small theaters in midsize metros.
As a result, there’s less incentive for country artists to refashion their music in a play for pop success.
“Country is just so big in its own right,” Mardit says, “that they don’t need to do that.”
Three months after SiriusXM pivoted away from its streaming app in favor of its core in-car satellite listeners, the company further thinned its ranks on Monday (March 10) with a new round of layoffs. The cuts came primarily in the company’s product and technology group and were part of the strategic shift announced in December, according to a company spokesperson. The company did not specify the number of employees affected.
Monday’s layoffs mark the third time in as many years that SiriusXM has cut its workforce. The company also laid off 3% of its employees in February 2024 and 8% of its employees in March 2023. The company described the previous two rounds of layoffs as necessary to build its platform and invest in technology to generate growth. Satellite subscription growth has stalled in recent years, though, and the company’s effort to attract new subscribers with a lower-priced streaming app brought disappointing results.
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In December, the company returned its emphasis to satellite listening, planning to “tak[e] steps to drive profitability and cash flow as we face marketplace headwinds impacting the company’s growth trajectory,” CEO Jennifer Witz said in December. At the same time, SiriusXM named former Google and Viacom executive Wayne Thorsen as COO in charge of the company’s product and technology, corporate strategy and parts of the commercial business. Thorsen’s arrival coincided with the departure of chief product and technology officer Joseph Inzerillo.
One of the products SiriusXM is using to bring in new subscribers is a lower-cost, ad-supported satellite service that had a limited launch in 2024. “In having an ad-supported tier, it gives us a place where we can market to these individuals,” CFO Tom Barry said Tuesday (March 11) during the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference. “We can bring them up to a higher price point as they appreciate and they increase their engagement in the product.” The full roll-out is expected to happen at some point in 2025, “but it could slip,” he added.
Advertising continues to be a problem, however. As concerns build over the Trump administration’s tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, SiriusXM started “to see a drop-off” in advertising in the last “couple of weeks,” particularly in consumer-packaged goods brands, said Barry, adding, “I would say we’re cautious about where the ad industry is going right now.”
More subscriber losses are expected in 2025. SiriusXM is reducing its marketing spending on the streaming app and will “tighten” the terms of promotional plans, Barry said, which should result in the loss of approximately 200,000 subscribers this year. That drop would follow a 4% decline in subscribers in 2024, when SiriusXM revenue fell 3% to $8.7 billion.
Audacy, the second-biggest broadcast company after iHeartMedia, laid off 200 employees this week, according to a radio business source. “Audacy has made workforce reductions to ensure a strong and resilient future for the business,” added a company spokesperson, who wouldn’t confirm or elaborate on the layoffs. “We are streamlining resources to stay competitive in a rapidly […]
King Charles is taking on a new role in addition to monarch of the United Kingdom: DJ.
As announced Thursday (March 6), the British ruler is set to premiere a new radio show on Apple Music titled The King’s Music Room. Recorded in his personal office at Buckingham Palace, the show will showcase Charles’ favorite artists, from “1930s crooners to Afrobeats stars as well as disco divas and reggae icons,” according to a description.
In a trailer released Thursday, Charles personally introduces the show while seated behind his desk. “Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me,” he says. “It has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories, comfort us in times of sadness and take us to distant places. But perhaps, above all, it can lift our spirits to such a degree, and all the more so when it brings us together in celebration.
“In other words, it brings us joy,” the king continues. “This is what I particularly wanted to share with you: songs which have brought me joy. This seemed such an interesting and innovative way to celebrate this year’s Commonwealth Day.”
A press release adds that Charles’ show will be “shaped by his extraordinary experiences from around the world” and find the monarch sharing personal stories about the artists he features. Bob Marley, Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones, Davido and RAYE make up just a few of the musicians he’ll highlight.
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“Human curation has always been a key pillar of our unique editorial approach,” said Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of content and editorial, in a statement. “Apple Music Radio is where culture is happening worldwide, and we are honored that King Charles III chose to share his personal playlist with us, and with music fans around the world.”
The King’s Music Room will premiere on Apple Music 1 and Apple Music Hits at 6 a.m. GMT on Monday (March 10), with additional broadcasts throughout the day and Tuesday (March 11).
Watch the trailer below.
iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman apparently believes his company’s stock is undervalued.
The executive sent a message to Wall Street on Tuesday (March 4) when he spent $320,000 to purchase 200,000 iHeartMedia shares, according to an SEC filing released Thursday (March 6). Investors took note, sending the company’s stock price up 23.2% to $1.86.
iHeartMedia shares had plummeted 27.7% in the four trading days following the company’s fourth quarter earnings release on Feb. 27. The stock fell 15.3% to $1.77 following the announcement and slipped an additional 14.8%, to $1.51, by Wednesday (March 5). But Thursday’s SEC filing reduced iHeartMedia’s year-to-date decline to 6.1% from 23.7%.
CEOs will occasionally buy shares of their companies when they believe the market is undervaluing the company. In March 2020, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino bought approximately $1 million worth of shares as the price faltered at the pandemic’s onset; Live Nation’s share price has since risen 262% to $131.11. In May 2022, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek bought $50 million of Spotify shares a week after the stock hit an all-time low of $95.74. “I believe our best days are ahead,” Ek wrote on Twitter at the time. Spotify’s share price has since risen nearly six-fold to $543.51.
iHeartMedia, the country’s largest radio broadcaster, is trying to navigate the decline in broadcast radio while building a digital business. Although it ranks No. 1 in podcast market share, the company’s legacy business is still twice the size of its digital business. To shore up its financials, the company has laid off employees, sold tower sites and restructured its debt.
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Last week, iHeartMedia executives told investors that first-quarter revenue would decline in the low single-digits and full-year revenue would be flat. CFO Rich Bressler said that January revenue was up 5.5% but February revenue was on track for a 7% decline as consumer sentiment suffered its biggest one-month decline since August 2021.
“Although the year began with optimism, many companies are now focusing on how potential tariffs, inflation and higher interest rates may impact their businesses, introducing an element of uncertainty,” said Bressler.
Pittman remained optimistic and believed those uncertainties will “steady up a lot” as the year progresses. “If there’s a change, people take a beat and adjust to the change,” he said. “There’s a big change between this [presidential] administration and the last one, and I think people are digesting. I don’t think the uncertainty is totally unexpected, and it’s certainly understandable.”
“It was an uncomfortable song to play my mom,” Leon Thomas admits of “Mutt,” a flirtatious track that mentions the urge to “pop a shroom to re-create the feeling.” “Mutt” marked the Grammy-winning songwriter’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry as a recording artist, following years of behind-the-scenes work that includes hits for Ariana Grande, SZA and more. And his mother loved it, too. “She told me this is going to be one of my biggest records. She spoke into existence.”
For Thomas, 31 — the Brooklyn-bred son of Black Rock Coalition parents, and the grandson of the late opera singer John Anthony — music and family have always been intertwined. His parents, who frequented CBGB, laid the musical foundation for the rock-infused soul he explores on Mutt, his sophomore album released last September.
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Since then, he supported Blxst on tour and embarked on his own headlining trek — but February in particular solidified Thomas’ turn from songwriting savant to front-facing R&B star. “Mutt” entered the Hot 100 on the Feb. 8 chart (and reaches a new No. 67 peak on the March 8-dated list); he made his live-TV debut with the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the same week; and then performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk later that month, where he dedicated 2022 single “Breaking Point” to his recently deceased grandfather (Thomas attended his funeral directly after the taping). “He was the anchor to my journey,” says Thomas. “I can tell he was with me musically.”
Leon Thomas
Raymond Alva
While his past month looks like a whirlwind of success, Thomas’ breakthrough has been nearly two decades in the making. At 13, with Broadway runs in The Lion King, The Color Purple and Caroline, Or Change under his belt, Thomas signed his first deal with Columbia Records. “I was walking into the boardroom playing Stevie Wonder covers and in-depth love songs,” he reflects with a laugh. “They were like, ‘What we gon’ do with this? Did you even hit puberty?’” Around that time, he made his theatrical debut in the 2007 film August Rush, which led to a Nickelodeon development deal that landed him roles on shows from The Backyardigans to Victorious.
As the deal was nearing its end and Victorious approached its 2013 series finale, Thomas explored his options, and received advice from Republic Records’ Wendy Goldstein, who was the label’s senior vp of A&R at the time. “Journeying through your twenties is you becoming everything that you need from everybody else,” she told him. “Those words stuck with me on some Spider-Man s–t,” he says today.
He spent the better part of the next decade learning the independent scene, studying under Babyface and Boi-1da (and by extension, Drake’s camp), and was briefly signed to Alex da Kid’s KIDinaKORNER. He met manager Jonathan Azu in 2019 and became the first act on his Culture Collective roster. Two years later, he landed a record deal with Ty Dolla $ign and Motown Records’ joint venture, EZMNY, after running into A&R Shawn Barron on a grocery run.
“I was kind of scared because signing under an artist can be either heaven or hell,” says Thomas. “Luckily, I’m stomping around in heaven right now.”
During his time at Motown, Thomas has experienced several different leadership regimes following restructurings by parent company Universal Music Group. Now under Capitol Music Group chairman/CEO Tom March — who Thomas says “gets my vision and is down to support real music” — he was able to execute his ideal album rollout for Mutt.
The campaign kicked off last August — a year after his debut full-length, Electric Dusk — with the release of the album’s title track. A funky R&B midtempo tune that nods to Enchantment’s “Silly Love Song” by way of a Bootsy Collins-esque bassline, “Mutt” was the product of Thomas’ desire to “have a record that shows what I’m about: live music, funk and vulnerability.” Written in 2022, Thomas crafted “Mutt” on his living room floor while microdosing psychedelics and watching his dog and cat fight. “I saw the similarities between us and how we have good intentions but don’t always do the right thing,” he told Billboard last year.
The single’s steady chart climb is largely due to Thomas and Azu’s “all ships rise” business approach. Instead of exhausting resources on one song, they banked on word-of-mouth from his live performances to help people discover “Mutt” along with the rest of the album.
“We [noticed] the crowd’s reaction when ‘Mutt’ would play: the phones were always up, but they would really come out for ‘Mutt,’” says Azu. The song continued naturally gaining traction in R&B circles with those familiar with Thomas’ songwriting and production work. “Everybody knows how dangerous he is in the studio with other people’s work,” Azu adds.
Jonathan Azu (left) and Leon Thomas at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Courtesy of Culture Collective
Thomas launched a 13-date headlining tour in October at intimate venues across the U.S., and the trek doubled as a way to promote himself at radio. “A lot of program directors are just outside the Victorious demographic, but the people in the studios and offices are within that demographic, and so are [their] children,” says Azu. “Doing [that] work is so important for the foundation to go for adds.”
As “Mutt” climbs at three different Billboard airplay rankings (R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Adult R&B Airplay, where it hits a No. 7 best on the March 8 chart), Thomas is playing the long game. “I loved seeing how Lizzo kept promoting her hits and didn’t stop believing in them,” he says. A deluxe edition of Mutt is also in the works, and Thomas mentions potential collaborations with Kehlani, Big Sean and Halle Bailey in the hopper, in addition to a previously teased team-up with Stormzy. Plus, there’s a song on which Thomas plays every instrument.
“There [are] sides to me that I haven’t shown the world yet, so I’m spoon-feeding them,” Thomas says. “You need to hide the medicine in the candy. This deluxe is me stepping deeper into my purpose.”
A version of this story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Starting Tuesday (March 4), SiriusXM will deliver the sounds of Tomorrowland and the global dance scene with a new channel curated by the team at the Belgian mega-festival festival.
One World Radio will be featured within the SiriusXM app and feature music programmed by the team that curates Tomorrowland’s One World Radio internet radio station, with the SiriusXM channel to offer new music and live DJ sets from Tomorrowland festivals including the flagship event in Boom, Belgium, along with Tomorrowland Winter, Tomorrowland Brasil and more.
SiriusXM’s One World Radio channel will be an extension of Tomorrowland’s pre-existing One World Radio feed, but will be curated a bit differently and customized to the SiriusXM audience.
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“We are really excited about hearing the nearly unlimited Tomorrowland archives, giving SiriusXM listeners a peak into past vibes of the legendary two-weekend festival in Belgium,” Geronimo, SiriusXM’s Vice President of Music Programing, tells Billboard.
Aside from regularly scheduled and rotated music, the channel will also feature exclusive song cuts from previous festivals. “You’ll be able to hear the crowd reaction which really put you in the moment,” Geronimo continues. “It’s truly a place where the global dance community comes together and enjoys each other. Dance music is really about fun, love, positivity and enjoying life and each other and One World Radio captures this essence perfectly.”
The channel will feature music spanning the two decades of Tomorrowland history and span the spectrum of electronic music sounds. The “main thing is to give people a good time and spread positive vibes, without necessarily being bound to a genre,” says Bram Franssen, station lead at the pre-existing One World Radio and curator for the new SiriusXM channel.
With the launch, One World Radio joins SiriusXM’s suite of dance channels that include BPM, Diplo’s Revolution, SiriusXM Chill, Studio 54 Radio, Utopia and more.
“We’re excited to not only hear classic archived Tomorrowland sets but also what One World Radio has for the future,” says Geronimo. “The world outside of North America has historically been a step ahead when it comes to dance music and emerging genres, and One World Radio on SiriusXM will help bridge that gap.”
Drake has reached a settlement with Texas-based iHeartMedia in his ongoing legal dispute over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” according to court records.
In November, Drake filed a legal petition in Bexar County, Texas, where San Antonio is located, alleging that iHeartMedia had received illegal payments from Universal Music Group to boost radio airplay for “Not Like Us.” UMG is the parent record label for both Drake and Lamar.
The petition, a precursor to a potential lawsuit, had sought depositions from corporate representatives of both companies.
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In a court document filed Thursday, attorneys for Drake said the rapper and iHeartMedia had “reached an amicable resolution of the dispute” but did not offer any other information.
“We are pleased that the parties were able to reach a settlement satisfactory to both sides, and have no further comment on this matter,” Drake’s legal team said in a statement.
In an email Friday, iHeartMedia declined to comment on the settlement.
The claims against UMG remain active, and a hearing on a motion by UMG’s lawyers to dismiss the petition was scheduled to be held Wednesday in a San Antonio courtroom.
Drake has alleged UMG engaged in “irregular and inappropriate business practices” to get radio airplay for “Not Like Us.” The petition also alleges that UMG knew “the song itself, as well as its accompanying album art and music video, attacked the character of another one of UMG’s most prominent artists, Drake, by falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders, and committing other criminal sexual acts.”
An email to a UMG representative seeking comment was not immediately answered.
In January, Drake filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court in New York City against UMG over what he alleges are false allegations of pedophilia made in “Not Like Us.” Lamar is not named in the lawsuit.
The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner who headlined the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 9, is among the biggest in hip-hop in recent years.
The Federal Communications Commission sent a letter Monday to iHeartMedia’s CEO and chairman, Robert Pittman, saying the commission is looking into whether the audio company is forcing musicians to perform at its May country music festival in Austin for reduced pay in exchange for favorable airplay of their songs on iHeart radio stations.
“We look forward to demonstrating to the Commission how performing at the iHeartCountry Festival – or declining to do so – has no bearing on our stations’ airplay,” iHeart Media said in a statement. “We do not make any overt or covert agreements about airplay with artists performing at our events.”
This article was originally published by The Associated Press.