Innholdsfortegnelse for February 29, 2020 i Billboard Magazine

THE USUAL STORY ABOUT the music industry goes something like this: The recording business hit its peak in 2001, when it was worth $23.9 billion worldwide, according to the recorded-music business’ trade organization IFPI — and then fell, decimated by piracy and the resulting loss of pricing power, to a low of $14.3 billion in 2014. In the years since, it has come roaring back, up by a third to $19.1 billion in 2018. It’s an incredible comeback — even though the business is still worth a fifth less than it was at its peak before accounting for inflation. But that feel-good story doesn’t do justice to the overall success of the music business. The recording industry is just part of an overall music copyright business that also includes…

While recording her third album, Chilombo, Jhené Aiko used sound bowls, commonly known as singing bowls. When struck or shaken, they release a vibrational hum that resonates throughout the body, producing a calming and tranquil effect. Singing bowls are a common practice in healing and meditation, as they promote chakra balancing as well as stress and anxiety reduction. Here, Aiko shares how they influenced her sound. [This album] is an introduction to sound bowls for people who don’t really know about them — this is me introducing my newfound love. These bowls are crystal alchemy sound bowls, so they are made from gemstones. Gemstones are fused with things like platinum or made out of rubies and diamonds — and all of these different elements and properties contribute to their…

Big Changes Justin Bieber scores his seventh No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as Changes debuts atop the tally. The set earned 231,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Feb. 20, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. It’s his first album since 2015’s Purpose arrived at No. 1 on the Dec. 5, 2015-dated chart with 649,000 units. Changes also starts at No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top R&B Albums. Of Changes’ first-week sum, 126,000 are album sales, bolstered by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with the star’s upcoming tour and many merchandise/album bundles sold via Bieber’s official web store. At 25, Bieber is the youngest solo artist to log seven Billboard 200 No. 1s. (He turns 26 on March 1.) He beats…

Tame Impala’s Vinyl Victory The Slow Rush becomes the first Top Rock Albums No. 1 for Tame Impala, led by Kevin Parker (above), as well as the band’s top-charting entry on the Billboard 200 (No. 3), arriving with 110,000 equivalent album units (of which 80,000 are in album sales). The set also starts atop Vinyl Albums, with 32% (26,000) of its first-week sales total resulting from vinyl sales, marking the seventh-biggest week for a vinyl album since Nielsen/MRC began tracking data in 1991. All 12 tracks on the album appear on Hot Rock Songs, led by “Breathe Deeper” (No. 2), which also becomes Tame Impala’s first Rock Streaming Songs No. 1 (5 million U.S. streams). Plus, Elton John returns to the Mainstream Rock airplay chart as featured on Ozzy…

Shelly Peiken SONGWRITER In January 2000, Christina Aguilera’s “What a Girl Wants,” co-written by Shelly Peiken, dethroned Santana and Rob Thomas’ “Smooth” to become the first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 of the millennium. It was also the first No. 1 for Peiken, who had previously gotten close as a co-writer of Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch,” which hit No. 2 in 1997. Since then, she has written songs for Bebe Rexha, Céline Dion, Mandy Moore and Miley Cyrus, and she’s also a founding member of the advocacy organization Songwriters of North America. “ ‘Bitch’ changed things for me, but ‘What a Girl Wants’ established that I wasn’t a fluke,” says Peiken on the song’s 20th anniversary. “If this was happening again, it wasn’t an accident.” My daughter was 2 at…

INFLATION, THE SUSTAINED INCREASE IN THE general price level of goods and services in an economy, has been relatively steady in the United States for years, generally hovering at about 2% a year. But prices of music copyright goods have not tracked closely with the prices of essentials like food and gasoline. CD and download prices have trended downward, while streaming prices have held remarkably stable. A subscription to an “all-you-can-eat” music package has cost 9.99 (in U.S. dollars, euros or British pounds) for nearly two decades. Streaming service Rhapsody launched in the United States at $9.99 in 2002, a full nine years before Spotify, and its $9.99 price point was partly based on the cost of a Blockbuster video rental card. Tracking this unchanged $9.99 price point since…

Keep It Real — And Consistent Ballerini wants her fans to see the same person on Instagram that they would if they spied her out to dinner with her husband or on Good Morning America. Instagramming a recent trip to New York, she juxtaposed a shot of herself in an Yves-Saint Laurent top and Alexander Wang skirt with one of herself messily eating a hot dog on a city street corner. “I’ll make sure that I’m not over-posting just looking like I have my life together,” she says, adding that she follows advice she once received from Swift: “In a nutshell: ‘Don’t stress. Just be yourself.’ ” Kaminsky calls her approach “intentional, but also very natural to her.” Get Personal Ballerini finds the most value in direct-messaging fans, whether…

Roddy’s Unique Chart Claim Roddy Ricch draws an interesting chart statistic as his Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial falls from No. 1 to No. 4 on the Billboard 200. With the descent, the title has now racked up four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 — all through single-week visits to the top (a debut at No. 1 on the Dec. 21, 2019-dated chart, followed by reigns on Jan. 18, 2020, Feb. 8 and Feb. 22). In turn, Please is the first album to make four single-week visits to No. 1 since 2011-12, when Adele’s 21 had seven one-week visits among its total of 10 engagements at the top. Further down the chart rabbit hole, the only other set to notch its first four visits at No. 1 with…

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. SALES DATA 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 COMPILED BY 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…

A Boogie Takes 2.0 To No. 1 A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie (above) lands his third No. 1 on Top Rap Albums as Artist 2.0 opens at the summit with 111,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Feb. 20, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. The six-figure start represents A Boogie’s career-high weekly unit total. Before Artist 2.0, the Bronx native previously reigned for one week in 2017 with The Bigger Artist and for four weeks with Hoodie SZN in 2019. Artist 2.0’s arrival sparks moves on the Billboard Hot 100, where the album’s previously released cut “King of My City” rebounds 99-91. In addition, six more 2.0 tracks debut, led by a No. 23 entrance for “Numbers,” featuring Roddy Ricch, Gunna and London on Da Track. The…

West’s ‘Brand New’ No. 1 Matthew West (above) nets his ninth Christian Airplay No. 1 as “The God Who Stays” rises 2-1, up 11% to 11.9 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. He had last led in a featured role, on Casting Crowns’ “Nobody,” which reigned for 15 frames starting in October 2019, and most recently ruled as a lead with “Broken Things” for a week in November 2017. West ties Jeremy Camp, tobyMac and Chris Tomlin for the third-most No. 1s in the chart’s history, which dates to 2003. MercyMe leads with 17, followed by Casting Crowns with 11. Meanwhile, the song’s parent album, Brand New, arrives at No. 4 on Top Christian Albums with 4,000 equivalent album units. West adds his seventh top 10, a…

JHENÉ AIKO IS BURNING incense inside New York’s Germano Studios in NoHo, preparing the space for a listening session of her upcoming album, Chilombo, out March 6 on Def Jam. She wants the energy to be pure; after all, the record is Aiko’s first deep dive into the idea of sound healing. During the creative process for her third album, the experimental R&B singer was adamant about incorporating crystal alchemy sound bowls — which produce an extended vibrational hum — on each track. Her hope was to open up different chakras within the human body. “For instance, ‘P*$$Y Fairy (OTW)’ ” — the album’s punchiest and most provocative track — “is in the key of D, so I played a bowl in the note of D, and that governs…

EVER SINCE HE RELEASED 2017’s “Mi Gente” — which became that summer’s most-listened-to track on Spotify, even before Beyoncé jumped on a remix — J Balvin and his music have become recognizable around the world. He ended 2019 as the fifth-most-streamed male artist on Spotify and the second-most-viewed on YouTube overall. In 2020 he’s poised to expand his reach even farther, thanks to a renegotiated deal with Universal that makes him a global priority for the company — even as he remains signed to Universal Music Latino and delivers his fourth all-Spanish album in March. Though Universal and Balvin’s team declined to share the terms of the deal, Scooter Braun (who manages Balvin in partnership with Fabio Acosta, a member of the artist’s previous management team) says it “will…

Gabby Barrett Hits No. 1 Gabby Barrett (above) rises 2-1 on Emerging Artists, ruling for the first time thanks to her breakthrough single, “I Hope.” The track from the 2018 third-place finalist on American Idol hits a new Hot Country Songs high (7-6), with 19.8 million airplay audience impressions (up 9%), 8.7 million U.S. streams (up 5%) and 8,000 downloads sold (up 12%), according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Plus, Beach Bunny enters Emerging Artists at No. 8 as the group’s debut studio LP, Honeymoon, opens at No. 21 on Alternative Albums and No. 38 on Top Rock Albums with 6,000 equivalent album units. —XANDER ZELLNER CHART BEAT DUA LIPA LEADS AGAIN “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa (above) crowns the Mainstream Top 40 radio airplay chart, marking her second…

IZ*ONE Blooms On Social 50 IZ*ONE (above) blasts into the Social 50 chart’s top 10 for the first time (flying 49-8) after the Feb. 17 release of the 12-member girl group’s debut full-length album, BLOOM*IZ. The South Korean/Japanese act gains in nearly all chart metrics in the week ending Feb. 20, led by 554,000 Twitter reactions (up 333%), as well as 22,000 new Twitter followers and 4,000 new Facebook page likes, according to Next Big Sound. The act, which debuted in late 2018 after being formed via the Mnet TV reality competition Produce 48, previously reached No. 18 on the Social 50 dated Nov. 16, 2019. Concurrently, BLOOM*IZ bows at No. 15 on World Albums, earning 1,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Feb.…

Family First For Hunt Sam Hunt (above) scores his sixth Country Airplay No. 1, and first since “Body Like a Back Road” in 2017, as “Kinfolks” ascends 2-1, up 5% to 36.6 million audience impressions in the week ending Feb. 23, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Hunt’s new leader previews his sophomore LP, Southside, due April 3. Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours” rules Hot Country Songs for a 20th week, solely claiming the fourth-longest reign since the survey became an all-encompassing genre ranking in 1958. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” dominated for a record 50 weeks in 2017-18. Plus, Brett Young adds his sixth Country Airplay top 10 as “Catch” climbs 11-10 (21.3 million, up 10%). —JIM ASKER SALES, AIRPLAY & STREAMING…

Alejandro Rules Again Alejandro Fernández (above) nabs his seventh Top Latin Albums No. 1 with Hecho en México. His 16th studio set debuts atop the chart with 12,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Feb. 20, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of that sum, 10,000 are album sales, mostly owed to a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with his upcoming tour. Meanwhile, on Hot Latin Songs, Bad Bunny x Sech’s “Ignorantes” bows at No. 3, powered by streaming activity (9 million registered clicks). Maluma x J Balvin’s “Qué Pena” moves 2-1 on Latin Airplay (up 4% in audience to 15.4 million in the week ending Feb. 23). It’s the 15th No. 1 for Maluma and the 20th for Balvin. The latter is only the second act to…

J.Lo Logs 18th No. 1 Jennifer Lopez (above) crowns Dance Club Songs for an 18th time as “Baila Conmigo” climbs 2-1. She boasts the sixth-most leaders dating to the chart’s 1976 inception as a national survey, trailing only Madonna (50), Rihanna (33), Beyoncé (22), Janet Jackson (20) and Katy Perry (19). The track — a cover of Dayvi and Víctor Cárdenas’ collaboration (featuring Kelly Ruiz) that reached No. 9 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs last November — was remixed by Eric Kupper, Chris Cox and Studio 54, among others. On Dance/Mix Show Airplay, Dua Lipa lands a 10th week at No. 1 with “Don’t Start Now,” tying her 2018 ruler “One Kiss” (with Calvin Harris) as her longest-leading chart-topper. It’s the first song to log double-digit weeks at the peak…

Lumineers Light Up Chart The Lumineers (above) storm the Boxscore chart with reports for eight North American shows on III: The World Tour. The band, which came stateside after 17 European shows last November, is posting career-best numbers. Its double-headers at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. (Feb. 21-22), and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (Feb. 13-14) are at Nos. 11 and 14, respectively. The Chicago-area shows ($1.7 million gross) and the Brooklyn gigs ($1.6 million) are the band’s second-and third-highest-grossing engagements ever, after a three-show run at Colorado’s Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in 2016. In terms of averages for per-night gross, The Lumineers’ 2020 shows are their biggest yet. —ERIC FRANKENBERG BOXSCORE: THE TOP GROSSING CONCERTS AS REPORTED BY PROMOTERS, VENUES, MANAGERS AND BOOKING AGENTS. DANCE CLUB SONGS: THE WEEK’S MOST…