Billboard Magazine November 18 - December 2, 2017

COMBINING TWO OF 2017’S MOST BUZZWORTHY hip-hop acts and the longtime genre queen makes for the top debut on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Nov. 18), as “MotorSport,” by Migos, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, launches at No. 14. The track, produced by CuBeatz and Murda Beatz, blasts onto the Streaming Songs chart at No. 10 with 19.8 million first-week U.S. streams, according to Nielsen Music. With “MotorSport,” Migos earn their highest Hot 100 debut among 19 total entries (and 13 arrivals this year), while Cardi B follows her three-week breakthrough No. 1 “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves).” Minaj tallies her 81st Hot 100 entry, extending her record for the most among women. Atop the Hot 100, Post Malone’s “Rockstar” (featuring 21 Savage) leads for a fourth week, the longest reign…

ON AUG. 18, TAYLOR SWIFT went dark, wiping her social media accounts clean and replacing them with a cryptic clip of a snake. By the end of the week, Swift had announced her sixth album, Reputation, and released its moody, electro first single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” with its lyric: “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now ... ’Cause she’s dead!” The song, her first solo release in three years, broke 24-hour records for Spotify, Vevo and YouTube streams, and ended the 16-week reign of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” atop the Billboard Hot 100 with 2017’s highest single-week sales. But the single has since set some less glamorous records as well. A week after reaching No. 1 on the Pop Songs chart, it…

This week, Kenny Chesney’s new concert album, Live in No Shoes Nation, became the first live album to top the Billboard 200 in seven years and the biggest-selling live album since Paul McCartney’s Back in the U.S.: Live 2002. The reason: The country star bundled it into the price of tickets for his upcoming tour, a decade-old tactic that artists are now using with increasing success as the concert business booms and labels become savvier about getting fans to redeem their offers for CDs and digital albums. The album’s cost, which is baked into the ticket price, isn’t visible to fans. In October, P!nk’s new album, Beautiful Trauma, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with twothirds of her 384,000 albums sold tied to ticket sales, while about 80,000…

BIG LOUD MANAGEMENT’S decision to have Florida Georgia Line collaborate over the past year with the Backstreet Boys may have taken country fans by surprise, but the unconventional move only made Maverick more excited to join forces with the Nashville firm. “Who would have said, ‘We need to get Florida Georgia Line and the Backstreet Boys together’? There’s not three people in the goddamn free world who thought that was a good idea,” says Spalding Entertainment’s Clarence Spalding, a founding member of Maverick’s growing management consortium. “The point is, [Big Loud’s Seth England and Kevin “Chief” Zaruk] didn’t care. They knew it was a good idea. They were going to record together and then go sell out stadiums together. I can’t compliment them enough on not playing inside the box.”…

As president/CEO of Webster Public Relations, Kirt Webster was one of Nashville’s most high-profile publicists, with a roster that included country legacy acts from Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers to Kid Rock. But Webster’s two-decade reign in Music City came to a halt in November when his former client, country singer Austin Rick, alleged on Facebook that Webster had sexually assaulted him on multiple occasions. Webster immediately denied the allegations, stating that he had had a brief, consensual relationship with Rick. But Webster’s roster quickly thinned as some of his former employees began anonymously recounting other troubling incidents to various news outlets. “I am hoping that the allegations are not true,” tweeted Parton on Nov. 2, parting ways with him nonetheless. Webster has since shuttered his firm and did not…

SINCE ZACH KATZ ASCENDED to president of repertoire and marketing at BMG U.S. in July 2016, the company has scored a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with blink-182, made its largest label acquisition with the $103 million purchase of BBR Music Group, partnered with Facebook, signed Pitbull to a publishing deal and made a deal with Netflix to manage the streaming outlet’s music rights outside the United States. As Katz, 46, sits in his 16th-floor office in a high-rise in the mid-Wilshire section of Los Angeles, it’s clear he’s just getting started. In 2016, BMG generated roughly $500 million worldwide, with 75 percent coming from its publishing division and 25 percent from recorded music. Katz vows to make that a 50-50 split within three years. “We’re buying catalogs…