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Tim Hinshaw, Amazon Music’s head of hip-hop and R&B, will be exiting the company after five years to launch his own agency, Free Lunch. Free Lunch’s first client is Amazon Music. Before Hinshaw officially opens the agency, he will remain at Amazon in his current role through November.
“Tim and the Rotation team have established Amazon Music as a powerhouse in hip-hop and R&B,” said Ryan Redington, vp of music industry for Amazon Music, in a release announcing the news. “We’re incredibly supportive of Tim realizing his dream of launching his own agency, and we’re thrilled to continue to work together on developing the most impactful campaigns for artists and our customers.”
According to the release, Free Lunch’s principal focus will be to “authentically connect brands with artists and culture through bespoke storytelling and in real-life experiences.” The agency derives its name from the free lunch programs offered by public schools and parks in underserved communities across the country.
“Free Lunch is an ode to my youth and the dreams I had as a child, which have now blossomed into a beautiful reality,” said Hinshaw, who grew up in Compton. “My work throughout my whole career and especially at Amazon Music has always been a reminder that where you come from doesn’t have to dictate where you end up. I look forward to continuing to work with my incredible colleagues at Amazon Music and building a company that will open doors for people with backgrounds like mine.”
Hinshaw has served as Amazon Music’s head of hip-hop and R&B since 2018. In helming the company’s industry strategy and partnerships for the genres, he also works closely with the streaming service’s global flagship brand, Rotation. Launched in 2019, Rotation presents new and emerging artists through playlists like Rap Rotation and R&B Rotation. Sharon Bako, Rochelle Balogun, Jane Shin and Andrew Sexton initially comprised the Rotation team.
Under Hinshaw’s leadership, Rotation has expanded in recent years. Sierra Lever joined Sexton to oversee label relations while Josh Peas leads artist relations. Stephanie Harris became a member of Balogun’s team, which curates Amazon Music’s hip-hop, R&B and Afrobeats programming. Melanie Mercedes came aboard in 2022 to lead Rotation’s social media presence. Hinshaw, Balogun, Lever and Peas are 2023 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players honorees, with Hinshaw recognized as executive of the year in 2022.
“I want to thank Steve Boom [Amazon Music vp] and Ryan Redington for believing in me,” added Hinshaw. “When we initially discussed this idea, neither of them flinched and that meant the world to me and my family. Black executives have oftentimes gotten the short end of the stick after giving their all in this industry. I can name so many. It’s not often you see this type of support from major corporations for executives like myself and that should be celebrated. This is not only a win for me, it’s a win for hip-hop culture, a win for creative executives and a win for the Westside of Compton. Free lunch for the youth forever.”
At 20, Olivia Rodrigo has become the youngest artist receive a BRIT Billion Award by the BPI. The award celebrates artists who have reached one billion career U.K. streams, as calculated by the Official Charts Company. RAYE, 25, had been the youngest artist to receive the honor. Rodrigo was presented the award while in London […]
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.
Publishers should get ready to welcome a royalty windfall now that the Copyright Royalty Board has printed its Phonorecord III final determination in the Federal Register — the last step to make the new rate structure official, concluding a more-than-four-year royalty row between publishers and streaming services.
The question is, how much that bonus will be.
While various industry estimates are all over the place with some even reaching another $400 million, by Billboard estimates, the just announced determined rates — finalized eight months after the 2017-2022 term expired — could yield up to another $250 million in underpaid mechanical royalties flowing from digital services to publishers and songwriters.
Now, digital services like Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube and Pandora have six months to review and adjust past payments made for U.S. mechanicals to the new rates. Doing that will take a complicated assessment of past payments and applying them under the new finalized structure.
The ruling increases U.S. mechanical royalties each year during the five-year period using a multi-pronged formula based on choosing between either the royalties calculated using a “headline rate” tied to a percentage of the streaming service’s total revenue; or another pool that is calculated by using the lesser of either a percentage of total content cost — i.e. what’s paid to labels — or 80 cents per subscriber. Under the new finalized determination — which for the percentage of service revenue prong, is the same as the initial determination for the 2018-2022 term — the headline rate increased from 11.4% of service revenue in 2018 to 12.3% in 2019 to 13.3% in 2020 to 14.2% in 2021 and to 15.1% in 2022.
From there, performance royalties that are negotiated with and paid out to rights organizations like ASCAP and BMI are subtracted from the all-in pool, leaving just the mechanicals behind. The mechanicals are then measured against a 50-cents-per-subscriber floor, and whichever is bigger becomes the final mechanical royalty pool paid out to publishers and songwriters.
Until an appeal of the initial CRB rate determination initiated by independent songwriter George Johnson and joined by most of the big digital services sent it back to the CRB in July 2020, most of the streamers had been paying royalties under the high escalating rates from the initial Phonorecords III determination. But with the remand, in the fall of 2020, most services reverted to paying music publishing royalties using Phonorecords II rates from 2013-2017 while the appeal was sorted out. As an example, looking at just 2020 rates, that meant digital services abandoned the royalty structure that paid 13.3% of service revenue or 24.1% of total content cost and switched back to using the prior headline rate of 10.5% of service revenue and 21% of total content cost.
(This article uses rates and math associated with what’s known as the stand-alone portable streaming model — i.e., a single paid subscription — because it’s the dominant model that produces the most revenue in the U.S. marketplace. The rate formula has different percentages and parameters for other models like bundled, ad-supported, family or student tiers.)
Under the CRB judges’ final determination published in the Federal Register, the Phonorecords III royalty calculation keeps the escalating rate structures for on-demand streaming for the percentage of revenue prong in the formula but abandons an escalating rate structure for the cost-of-content prong. So, in the case of a single paid subscriber, that prong will apply 21% of total content costs to build an all-in pool to cover both mechanical and performance royalties, instead of the previously used — from the initial 2018-2022 determination announced in 2019 — annual escalating rates that in 2022 would have culminated at 26.1% of total content costs. That means in months where the total content cost became the all-in prong, the streaming service most likely overpaid publishers under the new rate structure.
In addition to eliminating an escalating rate structure for that prong, the CRB judges reapplied a ceiling for the total content bucket limiting what digital services would have to pay publishers. The initial 2018-2022 determination took out the ceiling mechanism, which would have meant that every time labels negotiated a higher rate, the music publishers and songwriters would also automatically benefit by a higher rate. Now, services reviewing their previous payments will need to measure the total cost of content bucket against the 80-cents-per-subscriber ceiling. Whichever of those two buckets is lower is then measured against the headline bucket and, this time, whichever is larger is chosen as the all-in bucket.
Reinstating the ceiling and jettisoning the escalating rate structure for the total content all-in pool could mean publishers were actually overpaid tens of millions of dollars for the 2018-2020 years, Billboard estimates based on Mechanical Licensing Collective and Harry Fox Agency royalty calculations data obtained from publishing sources. That amount, however, will be more than offset by the hundreds of millions of dollars in additional payouts that digital services will have to make for 2021 and 2022.
Billboard doesn’t have all the data necessary to calculate mechanical revenue on a month-by-month basis for each digital service, but looking at overall payments and reports to the Mechanical Licensing Collective can provide a simplified ballpark estimate on how much is owed to publishers and songwriters over the Phonorecords III five-year period.
First, let’s look at the first three years when it’s likely that services overpaid publishers and songwriters because they used the since-abandoned initial determination’s escalating percentages for the total content pool when calculating royalties. With Spotify, for example, according to data obtained by Billboard for the streamer’s Premium Individual tier, the headline rate royalty bucket won out most of the time for two of those years — 2019 and 2020 — to become the all-in bucket. Since the headline bucket rates are the same before and after the remand, it’s likely there were relatively minimal overpayments during that period. In 2018, however, Spotify’s total cost of content bucket appears to have won out all year — and that was at a higher rate of 22%, not the remanded 21%, and without a ceiling. So, in that year alone, Spotify likely overpaid by as much as $10 million on that tier alone, Billboard estimates, and is due to receive that money back from publishers and songwriters.
Based on that, and not knowing what kind of label licensing deals all digital services have, Billboard calculates — and some industry financial sources agree — that as much as $50 million in over-payments might have been paid by the digital services to publishers and songwriters overall during the 2018 through October 2020 period.
For that period, any overpayments will mostly be sorted out directly between the digital services and the publishers because the Mechanical Licensing Collective — created following the Music Modernization Act was signed in 2018 — hadn’t begun operating yet. Though, the organization will need to be involved in in recalibrating royalty payments that came from unmatched and unpaid royalties, which digital services turned over for those years at the MLC’s inception.
For 2021 and 2022, however, once the MLC began operating, the organization will be responsible for managing any royalty adjustments, once the new data and additional funding is received from the digital services.
In 2021, U.S. digital services reported $9.76 billion in estimated service revenue to the MLC, while the all-in publishing revenue totaled $1.31 billion — or 13.38% of service revenue — according to Billboard estimates based on MLC data obtained by Billboard. Taking a simplified across-the-board approach applying that year’s 14.1% headline rate against the total revenue of $9.76 billion would deliver nearly $1.39 billion in mechanical royalties — a $80 million bonus to publishers and songwriters.
For 2022, the payouts will likely be even greater. That year, digital services reported $10.78 billion in service revenue to the MLC and paid out a total of $1.45 billion in mechanical and performance royalties — or 13.5% of total revenue. Applying the 15.1% headline rate for that year produces about $1.63 billion in all-in publishing revenue — making for an extra $175.1 million in mechanical royalties.
Combined, 2021 and 2022 could yield an additional $255 million in mechanical royalties, by Billboard‘s best estimates. Depending on how much services can claw back from overpayments made during 2018 through October 2020, Billboard estimates publishers and songwriters will receive a windfall of $200 million to $250 million.
Once those payments are settled, it will be up to publishers to figure out payments to their songwriters under the new rate structure.
Beyond the windfall expected due to adjustments for over payments in 2018-2020 and the much larger underpayments in 2021-2022, Billboard estimates that the MLC holds an additional $350 million or so in unmatched or unclaimed royalties. In March of this year, the MLC reported to Billboard that it had paid out over $200 million of the $427 million pool in mechanical royalties it was handed from the years prior to when it began operating on Jan. 1, 2021. Sources say that since then, the prior 2021 unclaimed and unmatched pool has been further reduced with a total of almost $300 million now paid out. That leaves around $130 million in unclaimed royalties.
But what about 2021 and 2022? Since the MLC began, it has been matching about 90% of royalties from recordings to songs. In addition to the remaining 10% of songs that are not yet matched to recordings, there are songs building up the unpaid royalties pool because their credit claims do not add up to 100%. If a portion of a song’s credits are not claimed, that portion of the song’s royalties goes into the unclaimed and unmatched pool. Consequently, the overall payout rate the MLC is making nowadays comes out to about 84% of mechanical royalties received from digital services, according to sources, which is a considerable improvement compared to the 68–72% digital services matched and paid prior to the MLC’s launch.
In 2021, digital services paid the MLC about $675 million in mechanical royalties, Billboard estimates, and in 2022, they paid about $740 million. If 16% of the royalties for those two years are unmatched or unclaimed, that would make for another $225 million. And when 2018-2020 is added in, the MLC has a little more than $355 million in unmatched or unclaimed royalties still to be doled out to publishers and songwriters.
In addition to the publishing royalties still held by the MLC, Billboard estimates the finalized CRB rate determination will result in $50 million in overpayments to publishers for the 2018-2020 period and about $250 million in underpayments for 2021-2022. Within those totals, some of those adjustments will impact the $350 million or so unmatched and unclaimed royalties still held by the MLC.
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Fat Joe has managed to remain an important figure within the culture for the past three decades all while maintaining an authentic connection to the streets that raised him. ClashTV, a burgeoning livestreaming digital platform, announced Thursday (August 17) that Fat Joe will be its first Streetball commissioner.
With Fat Joe taking the helm as ClashTV’s Streetball commissioner, the Bronx native will enter the new role overseeing the platform’s coverage of the sport while also joining ClashTV’s board along with an ownership stake in ClashTV.
“I’m proud to team up with ClashTV and establish a new era of Streetball. The ClashTV team truly understands the cultural and community impact of Streetball, so I’m looking forward to helping them elevate the game and bring athletes, creators and fans together in an innovative and meaningful way,” the rapper shared in a statement.
ClashTV CEO Jonathan Anastas adds, “Clash is with the culture. Joe is a superstar in the culture, and a lifelong Streetball fan. Together, we are going to unite the basketball leagues of America. In our mission to own the category of Streetball, there is no one more suited for this role than Fat Joe. What first bubbled up from the courts of New York City has become a worldwide movement. Joe’s expertise at leveraging media to grow the culture is legendary and we look forward to his contributions to ClashTV.”
ClashTV has a number of notable moves under its belt as it continues to grow the platform. The company partnered with AND1, and has forged partnerships with Alpha Metaverse Technologies Inc., creating and promoting summer basketball content, and was instrumental in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Drew League in Los Angeles among other moves.
Learn more about ClashTV here.
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Photo: Fat Joe
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With the success of Apple TV+’s revival of Peanuts’ The Snoopy Show and the brand’s collaboration with Cariuma, the streamer is treating us with a new special. This time, instead of following Snoopy and/or Charlie Brown, Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie will spotlight someone we normally don’t get an inside look at: Marcie. Mark your calendars and get the popcorn ready as the movie will drop on Friday (Aug. 18) on Apple TV+.
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As an introvert, Marcie (voiced by Arianna McDonald) enjoys her solitude, but struggles to share her ideas and advice with friends and peers without landing in the spotlight. In the midst of school elections, Marcie discovers how to feel empowered and find the courage to do things her way, and not what her friends want from her.
Other cast voicing the iconic Peanuts characters include Lexi Perri, Etienne Kellici, Antonia Battrick, Isabella Leo, Wyatt White, Caleb Bellavance and Lucien Duncan-Reid.
Keep reading to learn your streaming options to watch the new movie online for free.
When & How to Watch Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie
The new Peanuts special will air on Friday (Aug. 18) exclusively on Apple TV+. If you’re already subscribed to the streamer, then you can watch the movie for no additional cost — just sign into your Apple account to gain access.
Not subscribed? Apple TV+ is $6.99/month after a one-week free trial. If you’re looking for additional ways to save money, you can get three months free with the purchase of an eligible Apple device or a free month trial when you sign up for Apple One, which bundles Apple TV+ with up to five other services.
Apple TV+ $6.99/month after 7-day free trial
Besides Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie, an Apple TV+ subscription will provide you access to the full library of Apple TV+’s original movies, TV series, sports and more. Programs you can look forward to include The Afterparty, The Crowded Room, Ted Lasso, Platonic, The Last Thing He Told Me, Silo, Severance, High Desert, Shrinking, The Big Door Prize, Bad Sisters, Schmigadoon!, The Problem with John Stewart, The Morning Show, Ghosted, Still, Tetris, Palmer and more.
You can also stream Apple TV+ on the Apple TV app, your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac and popular smart TVs including Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL, Toshiba and others, along with Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV. Apple TV+ is available on PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles as well.
Check below to watch the trailer for Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie.
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Over the past week, Oliver Anthony has summited the music charts, thanks to his viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which highlights working-class frustrations (and, in some of its most controversial lyrics, the country’s welfare system) and has been met with both intense praise and backlash.
The song first gained national attention late last week, when RadioWV’s YouTube live video for the song began gaining millions of views (that YouTube post now has more than 16 million views). By the end of Aug. 11, “Rich Men North of Richmond” topped the iTunes country chart, and since then, “Rich Men” has soared to the top of the all-genre iTunes chart. According to Luminate, the daily official on-demand U.S. streams for “Rich Men North of Richmond” grew to over 3 million on Tuesday (Aug. 15). The song also resides at No. 1 on the Spotify Top 50-USA chart, as of Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 16).
The song and YouTube video gained traction initially, in part, through various media personalities who shared the video, including John Rich, Joe Rogan and Matt Walsh, as well as Barstool Sports and conservative outlet Breitbart posting it on social media.
The consumption of Anthony’s music extends beyond “Rich Men.” His song “Ain’t Gotta Dollar” is currently No. 1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart, with five of his other songs resting in the chart’s top 10 on Wednesday afternoon, as of publishing.
These numbers have swiftly led to an industry feeding frenzy for Anthony, with one label head telling Billboard, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before.”
Anthony acknowledged the rush of record labels trying to sign him on Wednesday, when he posted on social media to let his followers know about a show this coming Saturday at Eagle Creek Golf Club and Grill in Moyock, North Carolina.
“We are working on a full line up of shows with bigger accommodations in the near future,” Anthony wrote on his official music Facebook page. He also noted, “Everyone in the ‘industry’ is rushing me into signing something, but we just want to take things slow right now. I appreciate your patience.”
Amazon Prime members will still get a discount on Amazon Music — but starting today, they’ll have to pay a little more.
According to the Amazon Music website, effective Tuesday (Aug. 15), the company will raise the price of its premium, on-demand music subscription product from $8.99 to $9.99 per month, or $89 to $99 per year, for individual subscribers.
In addition, the price of the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, which allows up to six family members per account, will increase from $15.99 to $16.99 per month, or $159 to $169 per year. In both instances, existing customers will pay the new price on their automatic monthly renewal starting Sept. 19. The higher prices will allow Amazon Music “[to] help us bring even more content and features,” its website says.
Amazon Prime costs an additional $14.99 per month and provides free order delivery, access to the Prime Video and Amazon Music streaming services and discounts on products and services, among other benefits.
Amazon last raised the price of Amazon Music Unlimited for Prime members in May 2022, increasing it from $7.99 to $8.99 per month or $79 to $89 per year. With the latest price increase, Prime members still receive a discount equal to $1 a month or $10 annually for Amazon Music Unlimited. The prices for non-Prime subscribers were raised in February to $10.99 per month.
Music streaming subscription prices went mostly untouched for years before increasing at all major services in the last year. In October 2022, Apple raised its prices for Apple Music by $1 per month for individual subscribers, from $9.99 to $10.99 in the United States; and $2 per month for the family plan, from $14.99 to $16.99 per month. At the same time, it also increased the prices of Apple TV+ and Apple One, a bundle that includes Apple Music.
In July, YouTube hiked prices for YouTube Music, while Spotify raised the price of its individual subscription plan from $9.99 to $10.99 in the United States later in the month.
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Just in time for Elvis Week, a new documentary will take an in-depth look at the historical live-aired special dubbed the superstar’s “comeback” performance, which is dropping Tuesday (Aug. 15) on Paramount+. Titled Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback, this new documentary will feature exclusive footage and interviews Elvis fans won’t want to miss.
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Elvis made history on Dec 3, 1968, when he performed “Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” live in a studio in Burbank, California. It was one of the most-watched programs of that year and marked a major turning point for the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s career. Within the Paramount+ doc, you’ll get to hear from the special’s original director, Steve Binder, as well as interviews with Elvis experts, memories from Elvis’ audience members and new versions of Elvis hits by musicians including Darius Rucker and Maffio. As a bonus, fans can see scenes that were cut from the original special.
Keep reading to learn how to watch the documentary online without cable.
When & How to Watch Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback
Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback is dropping on Paramount+ on Tuesday (Aug. 15), which is also the anniversary of when the singer signed his first managerial contract marking the major start of his career. It will be exclusive to Paramount+, which means that current subscribers can tune into the streaming platform for no additional cost.
Not subscribed? You have a couple options to choose from when incorporating Paramount+ into your streaming. You can sign up for the platform and choose from two plans or Prime members can add the premium channel to their Prime Video account.
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With Paramount+, you can choose between the Paramount+ Essential plan, which is $5.99/month and comes with limited ads, tens of thousands of Paramount+ Originals, movies and TV shows, NFL on CBS live, Champion League Soccer and news through CBS live. If you want to expand your library of offerings, you can choose the Paramount+ with Showtime plan, which includes everything in the Essential plan, plus no ads, Showtime originals, movies and sports, your local live CBS news station, the ability to download programs onto your mobile device and more.
The platform is home to a bunch of original shows and movies such as Zoey 102, Queen of the Universe, Fatal Attraction, Rabbit Hole, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, 1923, iCarly, Yellowstone, The Good Fight, Mayor of Kingstown, Seal Team, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Why Women Kill and Before I Forget.
If you’re watching from outside the U.S., you can still watch Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback through ExpressVPN, which gives you access to Paramount+, Prime Video and other platforms.
Check below to watch the trailer for the documentary.
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It didn’t take long for news of a lawsuit against Lizzo to put a dent in her sales and streaming activity. Multiple metrics — such as on-demand audio streams and Instagram followers — reveal a small but noticeable fan backlash in the week following news that the singer was sued in a Los Angeles court by three tour dancers who claimed the “Special” singer subjected them to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
From August 1 — the day the lawsuit became public — to August 8, Lizzo’s daily U.S. on-demand audio streams fell 21.7% while her daily U.S. track sales have declined 35%, according to Luminate.
Almost half of the decline in U.S. track sales appears to be the result of a drop-off in sales of “Pink,” Lizzo’s contribution to the Barbie: The Album soundtrack. Excluding “Pink,” Lizzo’s track sales declined 19.3% from August 1 to August 8. The decline in her on-demand audio streams excluding “Pink” was unchanged at 21.7%.
The cumulative loss over the seven-day period is relatively minor: about 6 million on-demand audio streams with a royalty value of roughly $10,000 to her record label, according to Billboard’s estimate. Smaller yet is the cumulative decline in royalties from track sales of roughly $1,000 over the same period.
The financial damage would be far greater if Lizzo’s streams and sales continue to be impacted by the controversy. The lawsuit could remain in the public spotlight for some time: The attorney representing the three plaintiffs claims to have received “at least six other inquiries” from people with similar stories regarding their employment by Lizzo. If her U.S. sales and streams continued at the current rate, the cumulative decline in U.S. royalties from streams and track sales would amount to about $89,000 over the first 30-day period and $320,000 over a 90-day, three-month period.
Although her streaming numbers dropped considerably, Lizzo lost just 0.1% of her Spotify followers, amounting to roughly 6,000 of her 5.6 million followers, in the seven days after news of the lawsuit broke. But the singer took a bigger hit on social media. In the week after the lawsuit, Lizzo’s Instagram followers fell 1.7% to 13.4 million while her TikTok followers declined 0.7% to 26.8 million, according to Chartmetric.
Social media numbers fall when services occasionally remove fake followers, but “it is highly unusual to see these simultaneous declines in follower accounts on multiple services,” says Chaz Jenkins, Chartmetric’s chief commercial officer. Artists’ followers tend to increase steadily over time. In fact, before the lawsuit, Lizzo’s Instagram never declined more than 0.1% over any seven-day period in 2023. .
Seeing some fans’ reaction to Lizzo’s lawsuit recalls how Doja Cat lost about 600,000 Instagram followers in roughly two and a half weeks, according to Chartmetric, after the rapper traded barbs with her fans. She received none of the groundswell of support that Jason Aldean experienced after CMT’s decision to pull the video for his song “Try That in a Small Town” sparked a national conversation. From July 1 to August 10, Aldean’s YouTube subscribers grew by 10.9% to 2.7 million, his Instagram followers increased 5.9% to 4.3 million and the track went to No. 1 on the Hot 100. But, as Kanye West’s rebounding music consumption suggests, listeners may not stay mad for long.