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The Scorpions‘ iconic video for their 1990 power ballad “Wind of Change” has officially entered the YouTube billion views club. The black and white clip that opens with a haunting whistle over images of fans holding up sparklers is credited by some with helping to hasten the end of the decades long Cold War between the U.S. and former Soviet Union.
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In between footage of singer Klaus Meine crooning and a massive crowd holding up lighters, the video sprinkles in images of tanks rolling, economic disasters, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall. “I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park/ Listening to the winds of change/ An August summer night, soldiers passing by/ Listening to the winds of change,” Meine sings on the track from the band’s Crazy World album that is the band’s first video to pass the billion mark.
The power ballad that peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 tally and became the best-selling single by a German artist was written during a 1989 visit to Moscow; the previous year the band became the second-ever Western rock band to play in Russia when they performed in Leningrad on their Savage Amusement tour.
They returned in August 1989 for that summer’s Moscow Music Peace Festival — which also featured Ozzy Osbourne, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Skid Row and headliners Bon Jovi — where they said they were inspired by seeing thousands of young Russian fans cheering for a West German rock band. When the Berlin Wall fell in Nov. 1989, “Wind of Change” became a kind of unofficial anthem of German reunification.
The song was the subject of an eight-part 2020 podcast of the same name hosted by Patrick Radden Keefe that looked into the rumors that American intelligence officers were secretly behind the writing of the tune as part of an effort to end the Cold War. And while the band has never confirmed or refuted the rumors on the record, in the series an unnamed former spy told journalist and author Keefe that it was not out of the question that the CIA dabbled in subversive songwriting.
“In fact, I’d be somewhat surprised if they weren’t still doing that sort of thing today,” the source said in the podcast. “I’ll leave it to you to wonder which acts that might be.”
Check out “Winds of Change” below.
Just before the start of his previously scheduled trial, Jose Teran, who was accused of running a YouTube scam with a partner, has accepted a plea deal in which he has admitted to counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and transactional money laundering for his role in one of the largest royalty scams in history. In his plea, Teran admits to stealing over $23 million in royalties from Latin artists that he admits now he had “no lawful rights to monetize or otherwise control.”
Teran and his business partner, Webster Batista Fernandez, operated their scam under the business name “MediaMuv” and were originally indicted by a federal grand jury in Arizona on Nov. 16, 2021, on 30 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The scam was the subject of a Billboard investigation. Batista took a plea deal on April 21, 2022, in which he admitted to one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud. Batista now awaits sentencing, which is currently scheduled for March.
Teran’s plea agreement echoes much of Batista’s. Both pleas say that the MediaMuv founders “discovered there were songs of musicians and bands on the internet that were not being monetized.” So they began uploading the recordings to YouTube as MP3 files, claiming to own or control the rights. Between 2016 and 2021, Teran and Batista falsely claimed royalties from songwriters and artists ranging from independent creators to songs recorded by global stars like Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Prince Royce, Julio Iglesias and Anuel AA.
Under the name MediaMuv, Teran and Batista signed a contract with YouTube to use its content management system (CMS), which rights holders use to claim copyright ownership and the ensuing royalties. “We falsely claimed that MediaMuv owned over 50,000 songs and further sought access to YouTube’s CMS in order to obtain royalty payments for these songs,” Teran said in his plea. In addition, the duo entered a contract with AdRev, a rights management company owned by Downtown Music Holdings, “to assist in administering the music [they] fraudulently claimed to own.”
Billboard’s investigation uncovered that YouTube royalty-claiming scams like MediaMuv’s are more common than is generally believed, but Teran and Batista’s scheme was particularly brazen in terms of both scale and style.
Sources who work closely with the platform say YouTube scammers typically just claim small fractions of songs they suspect have not been claimed properly and might go unnoticed. This is especially common on the publishing side, where some compositions have so many songwriters that ownership and royalties are far more complicated than they are for recordings. But MediaMuv often claimed 100% of royalties for master recordings or compositions.
Both Batista and Teran admitted in their pleas that they sent three falsified contracts with companies that “purportedly” managed artists to AdRev and YouTube “for the purpose of deceiving [them] into allowing [MediaMuv] to continue [its] fraudulent operation” in July 2017. According to Teran’s plea deal, these three forged management contracts were provided to support MediaMuv’s assertion that it controlled a vast Latin music catalog.
The plea deals also say the duo did not act alone. Both mention that they hired “over five co-conspirators” to help them find new music to fraudulently claim and, in return, those co-conspirators were paid “a portion of [MediaMuv’s] royalties.” Names are not revealed in these documents, but other court documents tied MediaMuv to a network of people who seem to have benefited financially from Teran and Batista’s scheme, including Batista’s then-wife, who purchased a house in Phoenix in cash with money from a MediaMuv-associated bank account, according to a court document filed by prosecutors.
The house she purchased, along with six bank accounts, a Tesla, a BMW and a plot of land, are all listed in Teran and Batistas’ plea deals as items they agree to forfeit.
Though the duo is ordered to “make restitution to any victim” of their crimes, one of the businessmen who represented multiple MediaMuv victims told Billboard in August he doesn’t “expect to get it all back. I’m sure they spent a lot of it on cars and travel and stuff.”
In a statement to Billboard, a spokesman for Downtown Music Holdings says the company is “pleased by the latest developments in the MediaMuv criminal case, as both defendants have now pleaded guilty and admitted their role in this complex fraud scheme. This case sends a strong message to other potential bad actors that this kind of fraudulent activity in our industry will be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Representatives for Teran and YouTube did not respond to Billboard’s request for comment.
Teran’s sentencing is set for April 17, 2023.
Talk about way more than halfway there! The music video for Bon Jovi‘s classic single “Livin’ On a Prayer” officially crossed the billion view milestone on YouTube Wednesday (Feb. 1).
As the second single off the band’s 1986 breakthrough album Slippery When Wet, “Living On a Prayer” followed “You Give Love a Bad Name” as the New Jersey rockers’ second consecutive No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and dominated the chart for four consecutive weeks in February and March of 1987, sandwiched between Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” and “Jacob’s Ladder” by Huey Lewis and the News.
The music video, meanwhile, was filmed at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles and finds frontman Jon Bon Jovi belting out, “Tommy used to work on the docks/ Union’s been on strike, he’s down on luck/ It’s tough, so tough/ Gina works a diner all day/ Working for her man/ She brings home her pay for love, for love” as his bandmates flail above the stage on a fly system.
According to YouTube, the black-and-white visual filled with pyrotechnics becomes Bon Jovi’s second video to achieve the nine-digit viewership feat after 2000’s “It’s My Life.”
Last June, Alec John Such, Bon Jovi’s founding member and bassist from 1983 to 1994, sadly passed away at the age of 70. At the time, his former bandmates paid emotional tribute to him on social media, writing, “He was an original. As a founding member of Bon Jovi, Alec was integral to the formation of the band. To be honest, we found our way to each other thru him – He was a childhood friend of Tico and brought Richie to see us perform…Today those special memories bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. We’ll miss him dearly.”
Revisit Bon Jovi’s music video for “Livin’ On a Prayer” in the video above.
YouTube will return for its second presentation during Upfronts week at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, taking over the longtime home of Disney and during a time slot closely following Netflix’s first advertiser showcase.
David Geffen Hall will be a major upgrade for YouTube’s second Brandcast during Upfronts, which has long been an advertiser marketplace typically dominated by legacy TV networks. Last year, the Google-owned video giant hosted its first presentation at Imperial Theatre in midtown, which seats just under 1,460 people. David Geffen Hall will expand YouTube’s audience capacity to 2,200.
Last year, YouTube Brandcast — which featured performances from Jon Batiste and Lizzo — promoted YouTube Shorts, the company’s TikTok competitor, and live shopping. This year’s presentation is also expected to hone in on Shorts and YouTube TV, which recently nabbed the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package.
YouTube Brandcast will take place on the Wednesday of Upfronts, May 17, at 7 p.m. ET, followed by an afterparty. The timing may be less ideal for advertisers also attending Netflix’s first Upfront presentation at the Paris Theater, which is happening that same day at 5 p.m. ET and is also followed by an afterparty.
NBCUniversal will kick off Upfronts week on May 15 at Radio City Music Hall. Disney has not yet announced a date or venue for its Upfront presentation, and Paramount Global is skipping the event entirely in exchange for a series of gatherings in April.
Like last year, YouTube will still have a presence at the digital-focused IAB NewFronts with a morning presentation on May 1.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
YouTube and Goldenvoice have once again renewed their livestream and content partnership agreement for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival, striking an agreement that keeps the mega two-weekend festival on the Google-owned video platform through 2026.
First signed in 2011, the streaming partnership was renewed in 2018 through 2021 — the 2020 and 2021 versions of the festival were postponed due to COVID-19. Last year, the two companies worked out an agreement to air the festival’s post-pandemic return.
Besides multichannel live streaming and on-demand video from performances, the partnership enables fan shopping for Coachella merch, exclusive content for YouTube Premium subscribers, live chat, and onsite activations with YouTube creators and artists.
YouTube’s global head of music Lyor Cohen called the renewal “an absolute honor” and said the partnership would “bring the magic of Coachella to music fans,” while Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett said the agreement “brings Coachella to everyone around the world.”
Coachella is scheduled to take place April 14-16 and April 21-23.
Mr. Worldwide has made it to the Billion Views Club once again.
This time, it’s the video for his inescapable 2011 club anthem “Give Me Everything,” featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer. The hit song was No. 1 on the year-end Rhythmic Songs chart in 2011 and also marked Pitbull’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, seven years after his 2004 debut “Culo” alongside Lil Jon.
Pit has reached 1 billion views on YouTube three times before: with “Timber” (featuring Ke$ha), “Rain Over Me” (featuring Marc Anthony) and Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor.” “Give Me Everything” marks Ne-Yo and Afrojack’s second entry into the Billion Views Club and Nayer’s first.
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The track, produced by Afrojack, boasts a number of sonic elements defining the 2011 era, including bright piano chords, dominant synths and danceable builds. Since the release of “Give Me Everything,” the Cuban-American pop star has kept busy, scoring his second Hot 100 chart-topper with “Timber” and a Hot Latin Songs No. 1 with “Dame Tu Cosita” alongside El Chombo, Karol G and Cutty Ranks, among other Billboard chart achievements.
The track’s party-centric music video features appearances from Adrienne Bailon, Miss Haiti 2010 Sarodj Bertin and Russian model Eva Skaya. While “Give Me Everything” was all good vibes, there was one person who wasn’t too happy about the song: Lindsay Lohan. The now-36-year-old actress — who was mentioned in the line “I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan” — was so offended by the name-drop that she sued Pitbull, to no avail.
“Give Me Everything” was released via Polo Grounds Music, Mr. 305 Entertainment and J Records, serving as a single from Pitbull’s Planet Pit. The track reverberated through clubs and high school dances alike throughout the 2010s and continues to ring out into the new decade.
Keenan Cahill, a popular YouTuber known for his viral lip sync videos, died last week (Dec. 29) due to complications from open-heart surgery. He was just 27 years old.
According to his manager David Graham, per TMZ, the content creator underwent the surgery in a Chicago hospital on Dec. 15 and was put on life support after leaving the operating room.
Cahill was born with a rare condition called Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome, which progressively causes tissues and organs in the body to enlarge, become inflamed, scar and eventually atrophy. The disease can also cause skeletal abnormalities.
In a GoFundMe launched to help cover his medical and funeral expenses, Cahill’s aunt wrote, “Because of his rare disease, he has had countless surgeries over his short life including a bone marrow transplant. Thank you to everyone that made Keenan’s short life memorable. He will be missed by all who knew him.”
The YouTube personality first went viral in the summer of 2010 by uploading a lip sync to Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” Over the years, he also teamed up with the likes of Britney Spears, 50 Cent, Justin Bieber, DJ Pauly D, David Guetta, Jason Derulo and more. Cahill even had history on the Billboard charts, with “Hands Up,” his 2013 single with Electrovamp, landing at No. 14 on the Dance Club Songs chart.
Following the news of his death, tributes to Cahill flooded in on social media. Pauly D wrote, “Rip Keenan…Thank You for always making the world smile,” alongside a photo of the pair behind a DJ booth. Andy Grammer shared his own video with the YouTuber and tweeted, “So sad to hear about the passing of @KeenanCahill – He was a bright light and his joy was undeniably infectious.”
Read more tributes to Cahill’s memory below.
It has been 10 years since Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views. In addition to pushing K-pop into the global stratosphere, the vibrant video (now with more than 4.6 billion views, as of Dec. 2022) kickstarted the video-streaming platform’s official Billion Views Club — which has grown to become a landmark achievement for artists and industry leaders alike.
Over 300 music videos have entered the club since its inception in 2012 and several have surpassed Psy’s history-making visual. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” reigns as the most-viewed music video on YouTube, crossing 8 billion views just five years after its release. Also lapping Psy are Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” with 5.8 billion views, Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” featuring Charlie Puth with 5.7 billion views, and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” featuring Bruno Mars with 4.7 billion views, all as of Dec. 2022.
A number of superstar musical acts have had multiple videos surpass a billion views — including Justin Bieber, Adele, Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. Colombian singer-songwriter J Balvin has entered the Billion Views Club 12 different times, making him the artist with the most videos in the coveted club.
In 2022 alone, more than 50 music videos earned their first billion views. While some musical acts made their triumphant return to the Billion Views Club, others earned their first entries ever. The Weeknd added his fifth video with a billion views thanks to “Save Your Tears,” less than two years after its premiere. On the other hand, Cyndi Lauper reached the milestone for the first time with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” 39 years after its initial release (though it wasn’t uploaded to YouTube until 2009).
To celebrate a decade of billions, Billboard revisits all 51 music videos to enter YouTube’s Billion Views Club in 2022 below.
Exactly one decade ago, on Dec. 21, 2012, Psy‘s “Gangnam Style” made history as the first music video to reach 1 billion YouTube views. As a result, YouTube’s Billion Views Club was born. A way to celebrate official videos that have achieved peak virality, the club is now home to over 300 music videos, including many of the most iconic hits from the past 10 years — from Adele‘s “Hello” to Luis Fonsi‘s “Despacito” feat. Daddy Yankee.
But how much do artists get paid for crossing the billion-view threshold for a music video on YouTube? The royalties are dependent on a few factors. Label affiliation, location and type of view affect these rates significantly. For example, artists signed to major labels — which represent the vast majority of members of the Billion Views Club — earn higher rates on the platform than those who are unsigned or affiliated with an indie label.
But location is possibly the biggest determining factor of all: in the U.S., rates are generally higher than in other countries. So while an official YouTube music video for a major-label artist could generate a blended average of $0.0038 per stream in the U.S., globally — which is how YouTube counts its views — Billboard estimates that rate at $0.0026 per stream. YouTube Premium video streams (views from customers who subscribe to YouTube’s ad-free video-watching tier) are also higher than plays from users on the ad-supported tier, both in the U.S. and globally.
Consequently, for major-label artists, 1 billion video streams on an official music video would generate about $2.6 million globally. That’s, of course, before the label takes their cut of royalties, which varies widely based on each artist’s individual deal, and before the artist takes into account what, if anything, they owe to their featured artists or producers on the track.
For non-official videos that use music — like a user-generated video of someone’s visit to the zoo, set to a song by a major-label artist — that global blended stream estimate would drop down to $0.0021, given lower payouts on UGC videos and the over-indexing of UGC viewership vs. that of official videos. So for a major-label song on YouTube that generates 1 billion views across all videos that use it, the label and artist would generate closer to $2.1 million.
Of the more than 300 music videos on YouTube to hit 1 billion views, the fastest to reach the benchmark is “Hello” by Adele, which took just 88 days from release to amass such a viewership. Next is a tie between “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran and “Despacito,” both of which took 97 days. The third and fourth places on the list are also both held by Spanish-language songs, with “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William earning the title in 103 days and “Échame La Culpa” by Luis Fonsi and Demi Lovato taking 111 days.
Additional Reporting by Ed Christman.
Preview
The Weeknd‘s billion views streak continues. The singer’s music video for “Save Your Tears” has hit 1 billion views on YouTube and becomes his fifth video in his catalogue to do so.
“Save Your Tears” was formally released as the fourth single from The Weeknd’s critically acclaimed and record breaking fourth studio album, After Hours, on Aug. 9, 2020. The video for the track, however, did not arrive on the video-streaming platform until the following year on Jan. 5.
The provocative visual sees the pop star — face drastically changed by numerous (fake) plastic surgeries — performing for masked attendees at a dinner party and engaging in disruptive antics such as dancing on tables, purposefully spilling champagne and walking around with a gun, which he later points to his head and shoots. Confetti — instead of a bullet — comes out of the firearm, and the audience erupts into applause by the conclusion of the video.
“Save Your Tears” is the latest video in The Weeknd’s videography to reach the 1 billion view mark. “Starboy” currently has 2.1 billion views, “The Hills” is at 1.9 billion, “Can’t Feel My Face” boasts 1.2 billion, and “I Feel It Coming” (featuring Daft Punk) has 1.04 billion.
The success of “Save Your Tears” doesn’t just extend to the video, it’s also reflected in the track’s performance on the Billboard charts. Following the release of After Hours on March 29, 2020, the song debuted on the April 4-dated Billboard Hot 100. Its remix, featuring Ariana Grande and released in April 2021, peaked in the No. 1 on the May 8, 2021-dated chart.
Revisit the video for “Save Your Tears” above.