Innholdsfortegnelse for January 11, 2020 i Billboard Magazine

The Los Angeles-based Gruska, 30, grew up in the Valley watching his father, Emmy-nominated composer Jay Gruska, work with session players in their backyard studio and nerding out over Star Wars and Indiana Jones — the scores to both were written by his grandfather, the legendary John Williams. “As a kid, I didn’t understand how heavy that all is,” says Gruska today. “But the studio environment never felt foreign or scary to me.” That mentality helped Gruska when he got an unexpected call in 2019 from Fiona Apple that led to them recording together. Gruska also co-produced forthcoming albums from indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers and Atlanta alt-rockers Manchester Orchestra last year, all while making his own second album, the lush indie-folk En Garde, out Jan. 24 on Warner Records.…

SEVEN YEARS AGO, WHEN SIMON Sollberger was launching the online health/fitness coaching app Pear Sports, record labels wouldn’t play. It was impossible to license music to accommodate cross-fades between songs, and snippets of tracks that could be jumbled into a workout were out of the question. Says Sollberger, “It was like, ‘Let’s see if you can get an appointment with the labels,’ and the appointment was six months out. The writing on the wall was, ‘It’s going to be a nightmare to get them to agree to this format.’” Then, three years ago, Peloton broke the dam, licensing music for over 13,000 online fitness classes for its exercise bikes — and today, labels and publishers are aggressively seeking new frontiers for licensing beyond TV, movies and advertisements. “The thing…

Don Toliver Delivers Houston-based rapper Don Toliver (above) surges 5-1 on Emerging Artists, leading for the first time thanks to three Billboard Hot 100 entries — two of which appear on Jackboys’ self-titled LP, which debuts atop the Billboard 200 (see page 54). Toliver’s “No Idea” rises to No. 46 on the Hot 100, followed by the arrivals of “Had Enough” (featuring Quavo and Offset) at No. 52 and “What to Do?” (credited to Jackboys with Toliver) at No. 56. Plus, Nashville-based country singer-songwriter Travis Denning debuts at No. 35 on Emerging Artists due to his second charting single, “After a Few,” which hits new highs on Country Airplay (No. 22) and Hot Country Songs (No. 29). —XANDER ZELLNER CHART BEAT ‘MACARENA’ MAKEOVER Tyga (above) debuts at No. 34…

Ronstadt Reaches Social 50 Linda Ronstadt (above) debuts at No. 46 on the Social 50 chart thanks to a surge in Wikipedia views, earning 126,000 total views in the tracking week ending Jan. 2 (up 336%), according to Next Big Sound. The final third of 2019 had heightened interest in the singer after Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, a documentary about her life, premiered in theaters in September, followed by a digital release in December. On New Year’s Day, the film was introduced to a wider audience when it aired on CNN. In addition to online attention, the doc’s airing prompted consumption of Ronstadt’s music catalog. She earned 11,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week ending Jan. 2, up 45%, and her songs were streamed 4.5…

Lynch Rides ‘Roads’ To No. 1 “Ridin’ Roads” by Dustin Lynch (above) ascends 2-1 on Country Airplay, increasing by 23% to 36.5 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen Music. Lynch lands his seventh Country Airplay No. 1, and his second as a writer, as he co-authored “Roads” with Zach Crowell and Ashley Gorley. It follows his January 2019 No. 1, “Good Girl,” which he co-wrote with Andy Albert and Justin Ebach. “I can’t think of a better and stronger way to kick off 2020,” Lynch tells Billboard. “Shout out to everyone who’s been riding roads while cranking this one up.” Meanwhile, Garth Brooks becomes the first artist to have appeared on Hot Country Songs in the 1980s, ’90s, 2000s, ’10s and, now, the ’20s, as “Dive Bar,” with Blake…

IN 2019, U.S. ON-DEMAND streams crossed the 1 trillion threshold for the first time ever in a calendar year and logged double-digit percentage increases across nearly every category, save for overall album and track sales (though vinyl sales grew 14.5% to 18.8 million). Music streaming overall was up 29.3% from 2018, while on-demand video streams earned a bigger uptick, 40.7%, than on-demand audio streams, which rose 23.8%. Nielsen Music/MRC Data, now owned by the same company as Billboard, also unveiled global figures: Worldwide on-demand streams will hit 5.13 trillion, with audio and video to reach 1.72 trillion and 3.4 trillion, respectively. Lil Nas X rode to the front of the streaming race with his viral “Old Town Road,” which reached 2.5 billion on-demand streams (1 billion from audio and…

MEGHAN TRAINOR remembers exactly when she realized pop music was changing. It was the spring of 2018 and she was just starting to promote her third album, Treat Myself. Its lead single, “No Excuses,” had peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 — lower than her past lead singles, including her debut hit, “All About That Bass,” which reached No. 1 in 2014 — and her team had turned their attention to its follow up, a laid-back disco track called “Let You Be Right.” “The label, management, my whole team were really confident in it,” recalls Trainor. “Radio guys were telling them, ‘It’s the only song that will work [off the new album].’” As it turned out, “Let You Be Right” didn’t even crack the Hot 100.…

KSI IN AUGUST 2018, BRITISH RAPPER KSI challenged fellow YouTube star Logan Paul to an amateur boxing match. It became the biggest white-collar match in history, streamed by more than 20 million people worldwide. The match resulted in a draw, and the two men met for a rematch in November 2019 — this time at a sold-out Staples Center in Los Angeles. Before KSI even stepped into the ring, he knew he’d enter to his own song. KSI chose his latest single, “Down Like That,” a catchy, hard-hitting hip-hop track featuring Rick Ross, Lil Baby and British producer S-X, and won the rematch. “I wanted to make a statement and get inside Logan’s head — make him realize I’m on a completely different level,” says KSI, born Olajide Olayinka…

No regrets, with a few exceptions,” sings Mandy Moore on the folksy ballad “Fifteen,” one of 10 tracks on her upcoming album, Silver Landings (Verve Forecast, March 6). It’s not hard to discern what those regrets might be. Like most of Moore’s new songs, “Fifteen” (named for the age at which she released her Billboard Hot 100-charting debut single, “Candy”) is baldly confessional. “I’m not a developed enough songwriter at this juncture of my musical life to know how to write about other things,” the now 35-year-old says with a self-deprecating laugh. “I look back at [the younger] version of myself and just want to give her a big hug. I don’t think I really knew what I was in for.” Twenty years after her bubblegum breakthrough, the pop…

FROM THE SUCCESS OF “Despacito” to the explosive growth of reggaetón and urbano, Latin music has made monumental inroads into the mainstream over the past few years. But there’s perhaps no greater proof that the genre has cemented its place in American pop culture than the Super Bowl LIV halftime show, when Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will take the stage at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Feb. 2. “This is a great opportunity for Latin music and Latin artists,” says Horacio Ontiveros, CEO of On Air Media Group and a former producer for ESPN Deportes. “There are a lot of promoters who are finally realizing that there is value in [booking] Latin music talent.” The performance — expected to feature songs in both Spanish and…

AS SPOTIFY INVESTED HEAVILY IN podcasting in 2019 — including a deal with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company reportedly worth over $10 million — labels were also getting in on the action. In April, Universal Music Group announced a partnership with Wondery to produce original audio content based on its catalog; the following month, Sony Music Entertainment unveiled a partnership with renowned podcast producers Laura Mayer and Adam Davidson to create shows across a variety of formats and genres. “It’s still early days as far as revenue is concerned,” says UMG executive vp content strategy and operations Barak Moffitt, “but we’re really interested in what’s happening in the space as an opportunity for our artists and their visions, personalities and stories to reach fans in new…

In 1991, two years after The Recording Academy formed MusiCares, the charitable organization threw its first Person of the Year gala, honoring David Crosby. MusiCares provides support to musicians and those working in the industry dealing with financial, medical and personal hardships. Since its inception, MusiCares has donated over $66 million to help those in need and serviced more than 66,000 clients. “For more than 30 years, Musi-Cares has existed to safeguard the health and well-being of the music community, recognizing the humanity behind the industry and the human behind the artist,” says Recording Academy president/CEO Deborah Dugan, who also serves as president/CEO of its charitable arm. “The Person of the Year gala continues to be a crucial part of the well-being of the music industry. A humanitarian organization…

Jackboys Jumps In Having taken advantage of a sleepy release schedule on Dec. 27, 2019, the Travis Scottled Jackboys album pops in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The brief seven-track set starts with 154,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Jan. 2, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 79,000 were in album sales, with the vast majority of that figure owed to sales driven by dozens of merchandise/album bundles. Beyond its album sales sum of 79,000, Jackboys’ streaming equivalent album units total 74,000 (equating to 97.1 million on-demand audio streams for the album’s tracks) and track-equivalent album units equal 1,000. Jackboys is one of just three albums released Dec. 27 to debut on the new chart. It’s joined by G Herbo’s Sessions at No.…

FFDP ‘Inside’ Top 10 Again Five Finger Death Punch (above) kicks off the 2020s in a familiar spot: the top 10 of the Mainstream Rock airplay chart, with “Inside Out” at No. 8. The band now boasts 23 total top 10s, the most of all acts since March 2008, when it spent its first week in the tier with “The Bleeding.” The group scored a decade-best 20 top 10s in the 2010s. Also on Mainstream Rock, Evanescence’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 classic “The Chain” bows at No. 38. The Amy Lee-led act reaches the list for the first time since late 2012, after tallying two top 10s in 2006 and 2011. The band charts the third rendition of “The Chain” on Mainstream Rock, following Fleetwood Mac’s live version…

Finally No. 1 After 37 hits, and four No. 1s, on the Latin Pop Airplay chart, Alejandro Fernández (above) claims his first ruler on Regional Mexican Airplay with “Caballero.” The single, which is from his upcoming all-mariachi album, earned 8.46 million in audience impressions during the week ending Jan. 5, according to Nielsen Music (down 1%). “Caballero” is Fernández’s first hit on the list since “Estuve” reached No. 3 in 2009, and his 15th entry overall. His first appearance on the tally was with “A Pesar de Todo” in 1994, the same year the chart launched. In turn, Fernández claims the longest wait for a No. 1, counting from his first entry to his first chart-topper. Farther down the list, Grupo Firme’s “Cada Vez Te Extraño Más,” featuring Luis…

Lipa’s Strong ‘Start’ “Don’t Start Now,” the seventh Dance Club Songs No. 1 for Dua Lipa (above), spends a second week at the summit, becoming the first track to log multiple weeks on top since Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” (March 18 and 25, 2017). It’s only the sixth song in the last decade to accomplish the feat, joining Calvin Harris’ “This Is What You Came For” (featuring Rihanna, 2016); Avicii’s “Wake Me Up!” (2013); Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” (featuring Pharrell Williams, 2013); and Rihanna’s “We Found Love” (featuring Calvin Harris, 2011). Plus, Pet Shop Boys rank at No. 6 on Dance Club Songs with “Dreamland,” the duo’s 31st top 10 (and featured act Years & Years’ first). PSB own the most top 10s of any group or male…

“I hunted Dave down. I loved the sonic quality he got on Sturgill [Simpson]’s records. I wasn’t sure you could still make records that sounded like that, the older records I had in my head.”—CHRIS STAPLETON One of Nashville’s top producers, Cobb has collaborated with Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga and more. But it was his work on Chris Stapleton’s 2015 breakthrough LP, Traveller, that changed his career forever, leading him to launch the label and publishing company Low Country Sound (The Highwomen, Anderson East) in partnership with Warner Music Group subsidiary Elektra and Warner Chappell Music. He recalls the triumph. Traveller was made for the right reasons. Chris and I wanted to make the most pure and honest album that we could, one that represented…

CASEY McGRATH IS ONE OF MUSIC’S most sought-after matchmakers. His job: pairing brands with contemporary R&B/rap stars that have included Quavo, Anderson. Paak and 21 Savage. “We are the agency that runs the night,” says the 40-year-old Trenton, N.J., native. “That’s when consumers are the most open, which is the most exciting time to connect with them.” McGrath dropped out of college and entered film school — a precursor to co-founding then-fledgling production company Night After Night in 2005. Around that time, McGrath became intrigued by the field he had once eschewed as major brands began investing in online campaigns in innovative ways. Experiential advertising was taking off, and McGrath wanted a piece of the business. Night After Night secured its first formal agency gig working on Super Bowl…

How did the album campaign for Treat Myself evolve? We were initially planning on going with an album quickly, but we were also monitoring where things were going in the industry. It’s a benefit of streaming culture: We don’t have to be as confined by the old requirements of living and dying by, “This is the single, this is the first-week [performance], this is the album.” There’s no rule that says we can’t take a little more time. How did you advise Trainor as she went back to the studio? We used it as an opportunity to try things that [didn’t] necessarily have to be a single or an album. She only had a couple of previous collaborations, so we tried a few [more]: The Sigala song in the…

SOMETHING CURIOUS happened last September: A trio of Nashville executives from the three main performing rights organizations in the United States all announced separate plans to lead new publishing companies. Jody Williams, vp creative at BMI Nashville, revealed he was leaving the organization to start his own firm; Shannan Hatch, who most recently served as vp creative services at SESAC, became president of Fourward Music, the newly launched publishing wing of management/production company Fourward; and former ASCAP Nashville vp Michael Martin, who left the PRO in June, unveiled Endurance Music Group, backed by Raven Capital Management. The moves close out a year of high-profile acquisitions and expansions in Music City. In June, Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, backed by The Carlyle Group, bought Big Machine Label Group in a deal…

ACROSS THE HUGE VIDEO SCREEN SPANNING the stage at Manhattan’s TimesCenter, a ragtag rock band strides in slow-mo: white-haired singer in a T-shirt, tight jeans, smoky eye makeup and Freddie Mercury mustache; guitarist in black leather pants; another guitarist in a cowboy hat too big for his head; and a guy in a black jumpsuit and gold chains whose role is unclear. They perform what sounds like a famous Queen song, then sit down for interviews. But something’s not quite right about this installment of Behind the Music. For one, the singer is way off-key; for another, the song is called “Capitalist Rhapsody,” with the usual “Galileo!” chorus changed to “Oh Rapino! Oh Rapino!” This is not some scrappy band of rock’n’rollers — it’s a parody video by the…

Holiday Wrap-Up With the new Billboard 200, dated Jan. 11, 2020, and reflecting the tracking week ending Jan. 2, most Christmas albums have jingled their way off the tally. A week ago, on the Jan. 4 edition (for the frame ending Dec. 26), 52 Christmas albums appeared on the chart, with four of those in the top 10. On the latest chart, the highest-ranked Christmas album is Pentatonix’s The Best of Pentatonix Christmas at No. 116 (7,000 equivalent album units earned, down 88%), and just five Christmas albums dot the entire tally. Pentatonix Christmas also finished 2019 as the top-selling holiday album of the year, with 140,000 copies sold between Jan. 4, 2019, and Jan. 2, 2020, according to Nielsen Music. It was also the second-most-popular holiday set of…

AIRPLAY & SALES DATA COMPILED BY RADIO SONGS: THE WEEK’S MOST POPULAR SONGS, RANKED BY RADIO AIRPLAY AUDIENCE IMPRESSIONS AS MEASURED BY NIELSEN MUSIC. STATIONS ARE ELECTRONICALLY MONITORED 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK. DIGITAL SONG SALES: THE WEEK’S TOP-DOWNLOADED SONGS, RANKED BY SALES DATA AS COMPILED BY NIELSEN MUSIC. POP/RHYTHMIC/ADULT: THE WEEK’S MOST POPULAR CURRENT SONGS AT MAINSTREAM TOP 40, RHYTHMIC, ADULT CONTEMPORARY AND ADULT TOP 40 FORMATS, RESPECTIVELY, RANKED BY RADIO AIRPLAY DETECTIONS, AS MEASURED BY NIELSEN MUSIC. SONGS ARE DEFINED AS CURRENT IF THEY ARE RELATIVELY RECENTLY-RELEASED TITLES, OR SONGS RECEIVING WIDESPREAD AIRPLAY AND/OR SALES ACTIVITY FOR THE FIRST TIME. STATIONS ARE ELECTRONICALLY MONITORED 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK. SEE CHARTS LEGEND ON BILLBOARD.COM/BIZ FOR COMPLETE RULES AND EXPLANATIONS. ALL CHARTS…

Ricch’s ‘Box’ Tops Roddy Ricch (above) banks his first No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs as “The Box” rises from No. 3. The track, from the rapper’s Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial album, likewise ascends to No. 1 on Hot Rap Songs, while it races 13-3 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Box” leads thanks to its streaming supremacy. The single jumps 6-1 to rule the Streaming Songs chart for the first time with 42.6 million U.S. clicks in the week ending Jan. 2, according to Nielsen Music, up 15% from the week prior. While “Box” is already a streaming success, the track improves in other metrics. It lifts 14-8 on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales with 6,000 sold in the week ending Jan. 2, while it starts at No.…

Sunday Service Choir Soars Kanye West’s second faith-based project, Jesus Is Born — which is credited to Sunday Service (above), the collective fueling his Sunday Service live events — bullets at No. 2 for a second frame on Top Gospel Albums following its first full week of tracking. In the week ending Jan. 2, the set earned 10,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music. The LP was released the afternoon of Dec. 25, 2019; after its first day-and-a-half of tracking, it debuted on the chart with 6,000 units. Meanwhile, West’s first spiritual set, Jesus Is King, leads Top Gospel Albums for a 10th week. It debuted at No. 1 on the list, as well as on the Billboard 200, Top Christian Albums, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Rap…

Cher’s $100M Year Cher (above) logs eight entries on the Boxscore chart, reaching as high as No. 3 with a two-night stint at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Dec. 3 and 4, 2019. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the engagement earned $3.8 million and sold out at 27,495 tickets. Cher’s final dates of 2019 raised the diva’s calendar-year gross to $108.2 million, making it the biggest year of her touring career in Boxscore history. This total combines grosses from her Here We Go Again Tour and shows from the ongoing MGM Resorts Classic Cher residency. Following with seven engagements on the chart, the Jonas Brothers also close out their biggest year yet with a nine-figure total, grossing $109.7 million. —ERIC FRANKENBERG BOXSCORE: THE TOP GROSSING CONCERTS…