Bad Bunny & BTS Lead Young, Diverse Mid-Year Boxscore ...

The first six months of 2022 have lived up to the hype predicted for the concert business, fueled in large part by a more diverse, younger demographic eager to attend live shows and willing to spend more of their money on music and culture.

The leading 10 acts on the 2022 Top Tours chart grossed $722 million at the midyear point, 20% more than the top 10 for 2019’s Top Tours (the last complete year of touring prior to the pandemic), according to the 2022 Billboard Boxscore midyear charts that measure the top line of the live-entertainment indus-try. This year’s chart shows very healthy consumer demand and attendance, despite the ongoing global presence of COVID-19 and growing concerns about waning immunity among vaccinated people.

While big-ticket goodbye tours from long-standing acts dominated the 2019 midyear chart, a new genera-tion of younger, international names rules the 2022 report: Bad Bunny is the first Spanish-language artist to earn the No. 1 spot on the Top Tours chart. His El Último Tour del Mundo tour and two stand-alone shows in Puer-to Rico grossed $123.2 million and sold 645,000 tickets to 37 concerts, according to figures reported to Boxscore — roughly $3.3 million and 17,400 tickets per night.

Mid-Year Boxscore rankings are based on reported shows from Nov. 1, 2021-April 30, 2022.

The Latin superstar isn’t done, either. His 41-date Bad Bunny: World’s Hottest Tour is set to begin Aug. 5 in Orlando, Fla. It will span the United States before heading to the Dominican Republic for two shows at Santo Domingo’s Olympic Stadium. From there, he’ll visit Santiago, Chile, and travel north through South America and Central America before closing with two nights at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City Dec. 9-10.

The stadium tour has the potential to gross between $250 million and $300 million. Combined with the $123.2 million already posted, Bad Bunny has a very strong shot at securing the top spot on Billboard’s year-end Top Tours ranking.

“The demand for Bad Bunny is incredible, espe-cially when you consider how many shows are playing stadiums in 2022,” says Christy Castillo Butcher, senior vp of programming at the newly opened SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif. (Bad Bunny will perform there in late September.)

SoFi Stadium also hosted BTS for four shows that generated $33.3 million — while another four at Las

Bad Bunny & BTS Lead Young, Diverse Mid-Year Boxscore Report

BY  DAVE BROOKS

(continued)

YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE

BulletinJ U N E 2 , 2 0 2 2 Page 1 of 31

• Did Angel Olsen Just Show the Music

Industry How to Make Vinyl Green?

• Elvis Presley Estate Says Impersonators

Need Licenses to Officiate Weddings

• Brandi Carlile Is A Queer Icon — And She’s Making The

Music Business Better, Too

• Spring Awakening 2022 Was Sacrificed

for Profitability, Owners Say

• Ben Kline and Cris Lacy Named Co-

Presidents of Warner Music Nashville

INSIDE

MARKET WATCHPAGE 28

SONGWRITERS & PRODUCERS

CHARTSPAGES 29 - 31

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COUNTRYPOWER PLAYERS

2 0 2 2

Billboard’s ninth annual Country Power Players issue will profile the people who have driven another solid year for the country music industry in sales, streaming and publishing.This special feature will highlight the top executives, artists and change-makers who kept the music playing during chal-lenging times, as well as coverage of the changing face of country music.

Advertise in Billboard’s Country Power Playersissue to congratulate this year’s honorees while reaching key decision-makers who are driving the music business.

C O N T A C T SJoe [email protected]

Lee Ann [email protected]

Cynthia [email protected]

Marcia Olival [email protected]

Ryan O’Donnell [email protected]

Page 3 of 31

Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium generated $35.9 million. In total, BTS has grossed $75.4 mil-lion by midyear, earning the group the No. 4 spot on Top Tours. Concurrently, BTS joins Bad Bunny to create history: 2022 marks the first time that two acts that perform in a lan-guage other than English made the top five of a midyear or year-end Top Tours chart.

Another exciting milestone in 2022: This is the first time that half of the acts on Top Tours are not yet 30 years old (Bad Bunny, BTS, Billie Eilish, Morgan Wallen and Justin Bieber) and that four of the other five acts are led by frontmen over 60. Elton John, Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones and Don Henley from the Eagles are all over 70. Trans-Siberian Orchestra founding singer John Oliva is 62 and co-founder Al Pitrelli turns 60 in September.

Rocky Road Still Ahead: While consum-er spending on live events has yielded op-timism, the problems that many foresaw in advance have materialized. One issue is that far too many shows are fighting for dollars in major markets with not enough people to staff the concerts. At the same time, surging gas prices are hitting both tour transporta-tion costs and consumer spending.

There are also challenges facing the in-dustry that no one predicted, including no-shows at events from fans who have already purchased tickets and the way the Russia-Ukraine conflict has halted the concert busi-ness’ push east through Europe.

While the Boxscore charts don’t measure or address these systemic problems, they provide a fairly reliable view of momentum in the touring industry. It’s a rear-facing, un-audited view that skews heavily in favor of major cities and well-established artists, but comparing midyear results with those from 2020 shows some reasons for optimism.

Live Nation: Bigger, Richer and At a Crossroads: The biggest winner of the mid-year Boxscore is Live Nation: The company spent much of 2021 preparing tours for the busy 2022 season, delivering the big concert grosses that it had been promising investors while working under a reorganized manage-ment structure that has brought more focus to the company’s Beverly Hills, Calif., office.

Live Nation’s share price is hovering around $90, down from a high of about $125 per share when chief executive Michael Rapino and other executives cashed out some of their expiring stock options, but still 20% higher than the pre-pandemic period. Its show count and attendance are up, according to its quarterly financial report (though its Boxscore numbers are down because it has curbed how much informa-tion it shares with Billboard), and its market share is as strong, if not stronger, than it was in 2019.

Still, Rapino isn’t taking a victory lap. Instead, he has reduced his visibility and worked mostly behind the scenes amid the fallout from the Astroworld Festival, where

10 fans died due to crowd surges. The trag-edy presents both a major reputational and financial threat to the company, though Live Nation officials believe they have enough insurance to cover most of the costs.

The company has had a tricky time get-ting its messaging right in the aftermath of the tragedy, however: Nearly all of the data shows that increased prices are driving live music’s comeback to the top level and that ticket prices will likely keep climbing due to the rising costs of labor and produc-tion. More importantly, prices are going up because there is a greater demand for the tickets from fans.

That’s a difficult sell to consumers when the country appears to be entering a reces-sion, but there are early signs in the market that there is plenty of demand in the lower price range, especially at amphitheaters. Tickets for superstar artists like Keith Urban are as cheap as $30 per person at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, Fla.

But even as the company works to reduce prices, it still charges customers a premium on the back end — fees for its lowest-priced tickets in Tampa include an $11.40 ticket fee and $5 order fee, which is good for a fee increase of 50% over face value. As fans continue attending concerts and become more sophisticated consumers, the bait-and-switch at the checkout stand is only going to push away more buyers.

IN BRIEF

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ASHANTI2 0 2 2

Ashanti is a Grammy Award-winning singer/song-writer, actor and author. Ashanti burst onto the music scene with her smash hit, self-titled debut album Ashanti. It landed the #1 spot on both the Billboard Top 200 and R&B album charts, selling a whopping 504,593 units in its first week and set a SoundScan record as the most albums sold by any debut female artist in the chart’s history, granting her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, which she still holds today. Ashanti has released six studio albums and received eight Billboard Awards, a Grammy, two American Music Awards, two Soul Train Awards, six ASCAP Awards, and many more awards and illustrious honors. Ashanti has continued to reign at the top as one of Billboard’s “Top Females of the Decade from 2000-2010” and continues to break Billboard records as having a Hot 100 entry in the 2000’s, 2010’s and 2020’s. To celebrate her contributions to music and recording, Ashanti will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April 2022.

Please join us in celebrating 20 years of the Princess of R&B, the Queen of Written Entertainment and “Baby” the woman that is never “Foolish” and writes the melodies that stay in our minds and hearts forever…..ASHANTI.

C O N T A C T SJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | [email protected]

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | [email protected]

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | [email protected]

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | [email protected]

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | [email protected]

20TH ANNIVERSARY

Las Vegas Stays Strong: As expected, the major live markets on the Boxscore charts all performed, but Las Vegas was the only city to be featured in all four venue lists based on size category.

“Coming out of the pandemic, people were wanting to get away, and Las Vegas was an easy choice because we are only a one- to three-hour flight max for half the country, and we started preparing for the return of live music earlier than many other cities,” says Bobby Reynolds, senior vp of AEG Presents Las Vegas.

Sin City venues within the top 10 of their respective charts grossed a total of $258 mil-lion. New York buildings grossed $168 mil-lion, and Los Angeles concert halls grossed $109 million. Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, which opened in 2021, ranked third on the Top Venues: 15,001 or More Capacity chart, immediately followed by T-Mobile Arena.

The MGM Grand Garden Arena topped the 10,001- to 15,000-capacity chart, while Las Vegas’ Dolby Live (previously known as Park MGM Theater) earned second place on the 5,001- to 10,000-capacity chart and Zap-pos Theater at Planet Hollywood grabbed the No. 7 spot.

The brand-new Resorts World Theatre earned the top slot on the 5,000 or less capacity chart, followed by The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in second.

This story originally appeared in the June 4, 2022, issue of Billboard.

Did Angel Olsen Just Show the Music Industry How to Make Vinyl Green?BY CHRIS EGGERTSEN

Could there be a simpler way for the music industry to go green? While acts like Coldplay and Jus-tin Bieber have been focused

on bicycle-powered stadium shows and kinetic dancefloors, for her new album Big Time (out Friday on Jagjaguwar) Angel Ol-sen took a more straightforward approach that’s replicable for artists of all sizes. Each vinyl or CD copy of the album purchased from her label’s website has carbon offsets built into the pricing, meaning the environ-mental impact that went into producing — and will go into consuming — the vinyl album (for $1 each) or CD (50 cents each) is effectively neutralized.

All the proceeds from these surcharges go to Native, a public benefit corporation specializing in carbon offsets, which will use the money to purchase carbon offsets supporting the Medford Spring Grassland

Project to help acquire and conserve 6,900 acres of grassland in Bent County, Colorado.

“After the pandemic I had a big change in values and really started to notice and pay attention to nature and what it does for us,” says Olsen by email. “As I move forward with producing vinyl I wanted to do some-thing that would erase or at the very least reduce the carbon footprint of my work.”

The carbon offset project for Big Time comes amid a recent surge of sustain-ability initiatives by artists and their camps, though this is most often seen in the touring arena by high-profile, resource-rich acts that also include Billie Eilish and The 1975. But for smaller artists, “greening” an entire tour-ing operation simply isn’t practical. Making an album release more sustainable, on the other hand, is a more cost-effective solution that requires less of a heavy lift. “Sometimes the answer is, there’s nothing you can do. This is a hard reality of a promo trip, or fly-ing across the world to do something that [is] part of the campaign,” says Olsen’s long-time manager, Christian Stavros at Other Operation. “But the areas that you can make an effort sometimes doesn’t cost as much as you think it will.”

Though there has been less attention paid to album releases in terms of sustainability, they have a sizable impact on the environ-ment, producing carbon dioxide emissions through both streaming activity and the pro-duction of physical product. Spotify’s 2020

Page 5 of 31

IN BRIEF

Sam Hunt’s second studio full-length, and first in over five years, Southside (MCA Nashville/Universal Music Group Nashville), debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart dated April 18. In its first week (ending April 9), it earned 46,000 equivalent album units, including 16,000 in album sales, ac-cording to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.

Southside marks Hunt’s second No. 1 on the chart and fourth top 10. It follows freshman LP Montevallo, which arrived at the summit in No-vember 2014 and reigned for nine weeks. To date, Montevallo has earned 3.9 million units, with 1.4 million in album sales.

Montevallo has spent 267 weeks on the list, tying Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party as the sixth-longest-running titles in the chart’s 56-year history.

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Southside ar-rives at No. 5, awarding Hunt his second top 10 after the No. 3-peaking Montevallo.

Hunt first released the EP X2C, which debuted and peaked at No. 5 on Top Country Albums in August 2014. Following Montevallo, Between the Pines: Acoustic Mixtape started at its No. 7 high in November 2015.

Montevallo produced five singles, four of which hit the pinnacle of Country Airplay: “Leave the Night On,” “Take Your Time,” “House Party” and “Make You Miss Me.” “Break Up in a Small Town” peaked at No. 2.

Hunt co-penned all 12 songs on Southside, including “Body Like a Back Road,” which was released in 2017. The smash hit ruled Country Airplay for three weeks and the airplay-, streaming- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart for a then-record 34 frames. It now ranks second only to Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” (50 weeks atop the latter list in 2017-18).

“Downtown’s Dead,” which is also on the new set, reached Nos. 14 and 15 on Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay, respectively, in June 2018. “Kin-folks” led Country Airplay on Feb. 29, becoming Hunt’s seventh No. 1. It hit No. 3 on Hot Country Songs.

Latest single “Hard to Forget” jumps 17-9 on Hot Country Songs. It’s his eighth top 10, having corralled 8.2 million U.S. streams (up 96%) and 5,000 in

sales (up 21%) in the tracking week. On Country Airplay, it hops 18-15 (11.9 mil-lion audience impressions, up 16%).

TRY TO ‘CATCH’ UP WITH YOUNG Brett Young achieves his fifth consecutive and total Country Airplay No. 1 as “Catch” (Big Machine Label Group) ascends

2-1, increasing 13% to 36.6 million impressions.Young’s first of six chart entries, “Sleep With-

out You,” reached No. 2 in December 2016. He followed with the multiweek No. 1s “In Case You Didn’t Know” (two weeks, June 2017), “Like I Loved You” (three, January 2018), “Mercy” (two, August 2018) and “Here Tonight” (two, April 2019).

“Catch” completes his longest journey to No. 1, having taken 46 weeks to reach the apex. It out-paces the 30-week climb of “Here Tonight.”

On Hot Country Songs, “Catch” pushes 7-5 for a new high.

COMBS ‘DOES’ IT AGAIN Luke Combs’ “Does to Me” (River House/Columbia Nashville), featuring Eric Church, ascends 11-8 on Country Airplay, up 10% to 24.7 million in audience. The song is Combs’ eighth straight career-opening top 10, following a record run of seven consecutive out-of-the-gate, properly promoted No. 1 singles.

Church adds his 15th Country Airplay top 10.

THAT TOOK QUITE ‘A FEW’ MONTHS Travis Denning shatters the record for the most weeks it has taken to penetrate the Country Airplay top 10 as “After a Few” (Mercury Nashville) climbs 12-10 in its 57th week, up 4% to 21.4 mil-lion in radio reach.

The song surpasses two tracks that took 50 weeks each to enter the top 10: Easton Corbin’s “A Girl Like You,” which reached No. 10 in January 2018 be-fore peaking at No. 6 that February, and Aaron Watson’s “Outta Style,” which achieved its No. 10 high in December 2017.

“After” is Denning’s second Country Airplay entry. “David Ashley Parker From Powder Springs” traveled to No. 32 in September 2018.

SamHunt’s Southside Rules Top Country Albums; Brett Young ‘Catch’-es Fifth Airplay

Leader; Travis Denning Makes History

ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected]

BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE 4 OF 19

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NEW

11,000 Grammy™ Voters will be mailed a copy of this

special issue

B O N U S D I S T R I B U T I O N

+

On July 16th, Billboard will publish a GRAMMY® First Look special

feature showcasing the artists, producers and other creative

professionals whose music was released from October 1, 2021-

September 30, 2022. We will look at the early contenders for the

65th GRAMMY® Awards in the categories of Record Of The Year,

Song Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Best New Artist.

July 13 – August 31 Online Entry Process Access Period

Take advantage of this early opportunity during the eligibility period

to showcase accomplished work to the music industry as they prepare

to cast thier entries for Music’s Biggest Night®

ISSUE DATE 7/16 / AD CLOSE 7/6 / MATERIALS DUE 7/7

Joe Maimone | [email protected] Lee Ann Photoglo | [email protected]

Cynthia Mellow | [email protected] Marcia Olival | [email protected]

Ryan O’Donnell | [email protected]

C O N T A C T S

sustainability report stated that the servers which allow listeners to stream music on the platform produce over 70,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, while vinyl records — now the most popular physical music for-mat — are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a plastic polymer that comes from crude oil; most vinyl pressing machines also require fossil fuels to operate.

The idea for the offsetting project came directly from Olsen herself. Big Time — which was written and produced during a transformative time in the singer’s life, including her coming-out process and the deaths of both of her parents — was informed in part by her hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains near her home in Ashe-ville, North Carolina, as well as the natural landscape of Los Angeles’ Topanga Canyon where the album was recorded. To lean into the nature theme, Olsen began looking for a way to, as Stavros says, “add real value to a product without having to produce another product.”

In other words, instead of enticing fans to pre-order the album by tacking on an extra incentive in the form of an additional physical item, “Angel and I were like, ‘What if we explore the idea of just adding money to the [album] as an option, and then that money goes towards carbon offsetting? Will people choose that?” says Stavros, who says they also explored alternative ways to make the physical album release more sustainable, including by producing vinyl from recycled “ocean plastic” (which turned out to be cost-prohibitive).

After she and Stavros approached Jag-jaguwar with the idea, the label contacted Terra Lumina Consulting, which had been working with Secretly Group and its fam-ily of labels since last year to lighten the company’s carbon footprint – from looking at solar energy options at Secretly offices to crafting sustainable travel policies and practices for employees.

When conceiving the Big Time carbon offset project, Terra Lumina was asked to calculate what the additional charge would be for both a “carbon neutral” and a “carbon negative” model – the latter term meaning that a project removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits.

Terra Lumina then went to work calculat-ing costs involved in neutralizing the emis-sions produced by the life cycle of a physical album on both vinyl and CD by considering four categories: manufacturing, which ac-counts for the carbon emitted while produc-ing the product and its packaging, including the mining of raw materials; delivery, or the carbon emitted by transporting the product from point of production to end consumer; consumption, which accounts for the elec-tricity consumed by home stereos used to play the album; and finally the carbon emit-ted by end of life disposal measures, includ-ing recycling methods which themselves consume energy and resources.

Jennifer Cregar, founder and principal at Terra Lumina, concedes that the process of calculating carbon offsets is an inexact science “laden with assumptions,” including around the number of plays a physical al-bum might get over its lifespan (they finally arrived at the “very round figure” of 100 hours as an average, she says).

Once these calculations were complete, Olsen and her team opted for the “carbon negative” option, which in the case of Big Time amounted to doubling the number of carbon offsets per item that it would take to be carbon neutral – partially to account for the album’s writing/recording/master-ing process, which was not included in the carbon offset calculations, as well as emis-sions created by fans who opt to stream the album. This resulted in a slightly higher, but still minimal, additional charge for consumers (the amounts were ultimately determined by the label). Because all carbon calculations for shipping were based around shipments from Secretly Store warehouses, pre-orders are only available through Se-cretly as opposed to Angel’s artist webstore or third-party retailers.

Now that his work on the Big Time carbon offset project is complete, Stavros is look-ing to not only reduce the carbon footprint for Olsen’s merch and touring operations but those of Other Operations’ remaining roster, which includes Devendra Ban-hart, Muna and Of Monsters and Men. While he admits there are limitations to what can be accomplished amid the realities of the modern music business – particularly

for independent artists – sometimes, he says, practical sustainability solutions can reveal themselves with just a little extra research: “It’s just a matter of putting in the time and the effort to looking into it.”

Elvis Presley Estate Says Impersonators Need Licenses to Officiate WeddingsBY KATIE BAIN, BILL DONAHUE

Couples in Las Vegas may need to take their burning love elsewhere as the company representing El-vis Presley‘s estate seeks to re-

quire local Elvis impersonators performing weddings to obtain a license.

“As the guardians of the Elvis Presley estate, it is our responsibility to safeguard his legacy,” said a spokesperson for Authen-tic Brands Group in a statement to Billboard. ‘This includes ensuring that all products, services and advertisements utilizing Elvis’ name, image or likeness are officially li-censed by Elvis Presley Enterprises.”

This development comes weeks after Authentic Brands Group (ABG) sent a cease and desist letter to a number of Las Vegas chapels where Presley impersonators offici-ate weddings, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. 

Billboard has not reviewed the letter sent by ABG, but the group has a number of legal tools it is likely using to threaten the chapels.

ABG owns Presley’s right of publicity – the legal power to commercially exploit someone’s name, image, likeness and other personal traits, like the sound of their voice. The group also owns a number of federally-registered trademarks linked to the iconic singer, which give it the right to stop others from using terms like “Elvis Presley” and

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IN BRIEF

“The King of Rock ‘N Roll” to sell a wide range of goods and services.

Notably, Nevada’s law on the right of publicity expressly allows for the legal use of a celebrity’s likeness by “impersonators in live performances” – likely a nod to the long-standing and beloved tradition of Elvis look-alikes in Las Vegas. Whether perform-ing a marriage ceremony counts as such a “performance” is unclear.

In its statement to Billboard, ABG says that this move is less about using those tools to elbow out the fleet of Elvis impersonators who perform weddings in Las Vegas, and more about closely partnering with them.

“The estate has strong relationships with official Elvis tribute artists, fan clubs and festivals, as well as a robust global network of licensed merchandise partners,” Cici-yasvili’s statement continues. “There is no intention to shut down chapels that offer Elvis packages in Las Vegas. We are seeking to partner with each of these small business-es to ensure that their use of Elvis’ name, image and likeness are officially licensed and authorized by the estate, so they can continue their operations.”

This development comes weeks ahead of the June 24 release of the hotly anticipated Elvis biopic, Elvis. The Baz Luhrmann film stars Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as his famed manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Vegas weddings officiated by Elvis impersonators also got a profile bump when Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker had a “practice wedding” in Las Vegas on April 4. (This ceremony was not legally binding, with the couple legally marrying during a May 15 ceremony in Santa Barbara, Calif.)

“Elvis is embedded into the fabric of Las Vegas history,” Ciciyasvili concludes, “and we are committed to protecting and expand-ing his legacy for generations to come.”

Brandi Carlile Is A Queer Icon — And She’s Making The Music Business Better, TooBY TAYLOR MIMS

Brandi Carlile is happy to ex-pound upon bad wine. Bad wine gives her a hangover. The preten-sion of wine culture leaves a bad

taste in her mouth. “Without sounding like I’m judging wine as a concept, it’s annoy-ingly bougie and culturally hetero,” she says with a laugh. “It’s like golf.”

So when it came to developing her own boutique wine label, XOBC, she knew what she did want. It would be a wine for folks who are “a little left of center.” Something a bit rugged — maybe for a camping trip, to be sipped out of a Solo cup — “but it’s not going to give you a f–king headache.” And like everything Carlile does, it wouldn’t just be good — it would do good, too.

Because Carlile and her wife, Catherine Shepherd, started XOBC with their married friends Amy and Jeri Andrews, the company is entirely women- and LGBTQ-owned. Its grapes come from vintners in her home state of Washington, where she still lives with Shepherd and their two young daughters, Elijah and Evangeline. It’s even inclusive of those who don’t drink alcohol: Because Carlile saw her father’s struggles with alcoholism throughout her childhood (he eventually got sober), she insisted on adding Misfit Mist, a hop-infused carbonated water, to XOBC’s offerings. In March, to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, Carlile planned to release Proud Sparkling Rosé. Then, just three days before, the Florida state legisla-ture passed the Parental Rights in Education bill — aka the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — aimed at criminalizing classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity for younger students.

As she recalls it today, Carlile’s mood

turns sober. Recently, 7-year-old Evange-line was named student of the month and brought home a poster board to fill out about her family. She could write about how one of her moms is a nonprofit savant who previously ran Paul McCartney’s charitable foundation and about how the other has six Grammy Awards. But “I suddenly realized,” Carlile says, “that whole thing was against the rules in Florida. I don’t want that to be the reality for my child — but I don’t think there’s a difference between my child and anybody else’s.” She knew what to do: The Proud release was delayed, and its profits are now 100% funneled toward LGBTQ+ organizations fighting discriminatory bills. “We’re blinded by this insatiable need to do the right thing,” says Shepherd. After all, she points out, Carlile’s fans “expect a certain level of thought that goes into everything Brandi lends her name to.”

From the moment her career began in the late 1990s, Carlile’s name has been inextri-cable from activism. The simple act of being an openly queer country artist was, at the time, radical, even in her hometown outside of progressive Seattle. But even then, Carlile never only championed herself: Following her breakout 2007 single, “The Story,” she harnessed her newfound fame to launch the Looking Out Foundation (LOF) with her lifelong bandmates, twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, to raise funds for causes and organizations in need of a supporting voice as strong as her own. “[Her impact is] mul-tigenerational, and it cuts across LGBTQ+, men and women, and all kinds of genres,” says Bonnie Raitt, one of Carlile’s heroes and a mentor when it comes to organically blending activism and art. “Her talent and her fire are unmistakable.”

As her profile rose and her albums made a slow-burn climb up the Billboard charts — reaching an apex with 2019’s By the Way, I Forgive You, which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200; yielded her stunning ode to the underrepresented, “The Joke”; and garnered six Grammy nods and three wins — Carlile also became an expert connector between generations in the artist commu-nity, supporting its elders (with Shooter Jennings, she produced Tanya Tucker’s Grammy-winning While I’m Livin’ in 2019

Page 8 of 31

IN BRIEF

— and powered a Tucker appreciation campaign in the process) and keeping its departed legends’ legacies alive. (She’s a constant presence at major tribute concerts, for everyone from John Prine and The Everly Brothers to Chris Cornell and Aretha Franklin.)

“What impresses me about her is she still always finds time and a way to be there for things she cares about,” says Gregg Nadel, co-president of Elektra Music Group, where Carlile is signed. “Our whole label has this feeling of wanting to do right by her because it’s a two-way street — it’s a communal relationship.”

And at this point, Carlile’s business is so tightly woven to her beliefs that the more she thrives, the more her activist work does, too. Her consistently solid touring business has allowed her to donate $2 from every ticket to organizations like The Trevor Proj-ect and the anti-police-violence platform Campaign Zero. The proceeds from her 2017 album, Cover Stories (on which the likes of Dolly Parton, Pearl Jam, Adele and Miranda Lambert covered Carlile’s songs), were en-tirely donated to War Child UK. A purchase of her recent single “Party of One,” featur-ing Sam Smith, still delivers a portion of proceeds to Children in Conflict. Even the XOBC wine label was created in part to ben-efit LOF — which it did just as the pandemic halted touring and, overnight, stripped the foundation of its main revenue generator.

Even then, Carlile didn’t turn her focus inward. At The Compound — the roughly 80 acres of land where she lives among family and friends in Maple Valley, Wash. — her team rallied to build a makeshift studio in Carlile’s barn and broadcast intimate solo acoustic livestreams to raise money for her crew and LOF. The Bramily, as Carlile’s fans are affectionately known, “were incredibly generous in times of need,” Shepherd says, “where you would think people would be panicking and keeping their resources to themselves.”

Carlile is able to do all this because her compassion has been a core part of her personality since day one. “Brandi is fearless with a strong, golden moral compass,” says Duffy McSwiggin of Wasserman Music, her agent of 20 years. “When you’re moving in

the right direction, it contributes to that fearlessness.” But even that compass has, on occasion, faltered. In her 2021 memoir, Bro-ken Horses, Carlile describes a protest over the 2017 “Muslim ban” where she had been asked to perform Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” — and immediately felt questioning stares as the only white woman standing onstage among Muslim immigrant activists. “If you’re not cringing at this point in the story,” Carlile writes, “just picture me squeezed onto a mostly melanated, largely marginalized commu-nity’s stage … in my cowboy hat holding an acoustic guitar.”

So she kept to the side of the stage and, when the speakers began experiencing technical difficulties, got on her hands and knees, untangling wires until others’ voices were properly amplified. Being an ally, she realized, “is more than stepping out of the way. It’s more than saying nothing,” Carlile says today. “It’s being willing to be embar-rassed and willing to ask questions. It’s put-ting yourself in that crowd, taking that risk.”

Joy Oladokun remembers the mo-ment she first met Carlile. At the 2021 Newport Folk Festival, the rising queer singer-songwriter was rehearsing for Al-lison Russell’s Once and Future Sounds set, in which she would be playing alongside Chaka Khan, when Carlile made a surprise appearance — and pulled Oladokun aside to praise her work.

“She didn’t have to take me aside and encourage my work and production, but she did,” Oladokun recalls. “She’s a champion of people through and through. That’s her power.” She and Carlile instantly bonded over their experiences of growing up queer in very religious places. “It’s like a tattoo on a young mind that you spend your whole life trying to impact,” Carlile says, adding that her activism was in large part inspired by feeling utterly rejected in the church com-munity because of her sexuality. “You can’t do it alone.”

So Carlile found ways to build commu-nity elsewhere. Her trip to Newport was brief — she flew out expressly to support Russell and had to hop on a plane right after to visit longtime friend Elton John in Paris — yet she still insisted on gathering Russell’s

cohort (including, briefly, Khan herself ) for a post-set boat ride and oysters. For a Black, queer Nashville artist like Oladokun, that felt huge, and perfectly aligned with the many ways Carlile makes less well-known artists feel seen.

“When we’re not in the room together, I feel so confident that Brandi is advocating for me,” Oladokun says, noting how Carlile will regularly drop her name — as well as those of other up-and-coming artists she admires — on talk shows where she’s osten-sibly promoting her own work. “[Oladokun] represents our community of activists in such a way that it’s undeniable that we’re making progress,” Carlile gushes. “I’m thinking about [that progress] all the time. That’s how I remember to name-check.”

She knows firsthand just how powerful that kind of platform can be: As an opener herself for many years, “My objective always was to show up at that gig and grab ahold of those fans and take them with me,” Carlile recalls. “I’ve done that in such a way that it’s going to last a lifetime.” Now that she’s a headliner, she’s determined to provide that kind of spotlight to others who need it, whether they’re talented younger artists (her tour support has included rising stars Amythyst Kiah and Katie Pruitt, as well as collaborators like Lucius and Lucie Silvas) or veterans deserving of their flowers while they’re still active (Mavis Staples has also opened for her).

One of the biggest platforms Carlile uses, no surprise, is one she created herself: her destination festival, Girls Just Wanna Weekend. Since its 2019 debut, thousands of fans have flocked to Riviera Maya, Mexico, as much to see Carlile as the vibrant, diverse group of women artists she introduces and often joins onstage — from Nashville innovators like Yola and Ruby Amanfu to outspoken stars like Margo Price and Maren Morris and trailblazing veterans like Tucker, Sheryl Crow and Indigo Girls. The 2023 festival has already sold out without a single artist announced.

McSwiggin, Carlile’s agent, brings valu-able expertise from working on similar events with touring powerhouses like Dave Matthews Band and Phish; still, he says, putting together Girls Just Wanna Weekend

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each year takes a lot of “elbow grease” and depends upon the deeply loyal fan base that knows any Carlile show will be “a safe space to be yourself.” At the close of each week-end, Carlile can dependably be found right in the midst of the Bramily, tequila bottle of-ten in hand. (She loves it almost as much as wine.) In shimmering leggings, headbands, high ponytails and other questionable ’80s get-ups, she, her team and her fellow performers let loose to the Ladies of the ’80s DJ set — or, as Carlile puts it: “I get totally sh-t-housed onstage and then usually end up dancing in a hot tub fully clothed without my shoes. That’s just tradition.”

Moments like that are Carlile to a tee, says Shepherd. “Brandi doesn’t like experiencing any joy without sharing it with people,” she says. And those people don’t just include her fans and the other artists she can help, but the artists who’ve helped her, too. Ever since Carlile caught a guitar pick that said “No nukes” at a Raitt show as a teen, she has sought out meaningful relationships with the artists she considers her teachers.

“Bonnie’s activism is action-based, but it’s also philosophical,” says Carlile, who wrote Raitt a letter early on in her career as a fan and has stayed close with her since. “She lives her activism.” Likewise, John — whose own foundation focuses on the global AIDS epidemic — is a hero turned friend. Before she ever heard his music, Carlile says, “I knew about his heart and his activism and how intertwined it was with his music. My young mind was wrapped around that con-cept before I was an artist or an activist.”

“There’s not really anyone else I can think of that is the den mother for musicians and causes the way Brandi is,” says Raitt. “One of the great joys of the last few years has been growing our friendship through her incred-ible help with Joni Mitchell — organizing salons at Joni’s house to help Joni come back from her brain aneurysm [in 2015].”

Since meeting Mitchell at the retired sing-er’s 75th-birthday party, Carlile has helped organize and invite musicians to these “Joni Jams.” Despite not publicly performing any-more, Mitchell was eager to put her home full of instruments to good use and has since hosted stars like Raitt, John, Parton, Herbie Hancock, Harry Styles and Jacob Collier.

Each night, Carlile says, includes some “headache” wine, a home-cooked meal by Mitchell’s friend Chef Steph and time to ask Mitchell questions; then everyone heads to the living room to pass around Mitchell’s instruments, play and occasionally hear Mitchell sing both her own songs and cov-ers. “She has even gotten to know some of the lyrics to my songs,” Carlile marvels, “so she pipes in on mine, which is surreal.”

“I love her!” Mitchell says of Carlile. “She’s my ambassador.”

Sometimes, Carlile will visit on her own to run new music by Mitchell, who’ll sit and play solitaire. “She is back to mentoring, and she has found a way to make the things that have happened to her a blessing for other people,” says Carlile. After two decades in the music industry, Carlile has done plenty of mentoring, too. Yet she still sees herself as the kid at the knee of legends, intent to make sure everyone in her tribe remembers where they came from.

“Culturally, I think we discard our elders. I don’t want to call them ‘elders’ because some of them could beat me in a footrace — but ageism is real,” says Carlile. “I want to make sure everyone remembers the foun-dations of the things we enjoy so we don’t become untethered to our way-pavers.”

Mid-May is shrimping season in Wash-ington — and when it comes to shrimp, Carlile is dead serious.

Each day, she’ll write a note to her girls’ teachers excusing them from class so they can assist in the endeavor. “I need their lim-it,” Carlile protests with a laugh, explaining there’s a limit of 80 shrimp per person, and “the kids are people!” So she’ll prop Evan-geline and Elijah on the bow of the boat, drop pots down and take home upwards of 200 shrimp per day for Compound-wide barbecues.

Carlile, who just turned 41, admits that her wife is “constantly rolling her eyes at how much time I want to be with [the kids]. When I was younger, it used to be work, work, work. I’d get to the end of these tours, and I’d be all strung out on sleeping medica-tion and steroids and having panic attacks and not knowing why I was so unhealthy,” she continues. “I had no footing.” Now she’s determined to savor the little moments

of family life: building fires in their old wood-burning stove, making dinner at night, trick-or-treating (most recently as a Legend of Zelda-themed quartet).

That’s easier said than done. Between recording, touring and running a wine label and a foundation, the business of being Brandi Carlile is 24/7. She built a career by saying yes to everything, and she works as hard as she asks anyone to work for her. “I have an addict mentality that I probably got from my dad,” Carlile figures; if she’s not on the road or with her family, she’s out fishing in her hip waders or wielding a power drill for someone’s remodel on the Compound. It’s the same work ethic that took her from busking under the clock at Seattle’s Pike Place Market to hitting that high note in “The Joke” at the Grammy Awards. And so, “despite every therapist’s wish for me,” Car-lile says, “I’m doubling down on it because it feels like my lane.”

Red Light Management’s Will Botwin was president of Columbia Records in 2004 when the label signed Carlile based off a handful of songs she played at a showcase. (She moved to Elektra in 2017; five years ago, Botwin rejoined Carlile’s team as a manager.) He didn’t anticipate it would take nearly two decades for her breakout success with By the Way, I Forgive You, but he did see the commitment it would take.

“She is a throwback artist in terms of the way she has developed,” says Botwin, who still recalls the days when Carlile would play “every night in any club that would have her.” Growing her fan base, songwrit-ing talent and public persona organically for years meant that “when her moment started arriving, she was ready.”

In 2019, Carlile took home the best Americana album Grammy for By the Way, two additional trophies for “The Joke” — and a much wider audience after her on-air performance of the song. “I don’t know an artist who has ever been more present and more joyful doing a song like that on a big show, and it resonated with people,” says Botwin.

After that, the doors swung wide open for Carlile and, as the saying goes, the rising tide lifted all boats. According to Billboard Boxscore, between 2018 and 2019 — pre-

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and post-Grammy night — Carlile more than doubled her average concert attendance from 2,385 to 5,557 per show. Even with a limited number of shows in 2021, that average spiked again to more than 9,000. And triple the number of tickets sold meant triple the donations to LOF.

“You notice the donations increasing anytime she’s in the spotlight, whether she is delivering a message of activism or not,” Shepherd says. Shepherd has led LOF since 2012, when she left her position as Mc-Cartney’s charity coordinator to move to the United States with Carlile. During her decade with McCartney, she saw how grown men consistently lost their cool, dropping their briefcases to stand next to him — and how he never let the “Beatle effect” go to his head. “He was really good at reminding people he was just a normal person who likes bagels for lunch,” says Shepherd, “and Brandi is really good at putting people to ease in that respect.”

Carlile’s gratitude for the Grammys and how they furthered her activism was boundless until last year, when the Record-ing Academy announced that her 2021 single “Right On Time” would be slotted into the best solo pop performance category, not Americana. “The Grammys changed my life. They gave me the most life-changing opportunity, not just for me but for a lot of people,” says Carlile. But being moved out of the Americana genre “pissed me off,” she says.

“I can’t even begin to express how important it is to me to stay with [the Americana community],” Carlile continues, “even if it means levels of success that I’ll never reach.” She had decided long ago that achieving pop stardom wasn’t nearly as important as making change in her small corner of the industry — and suddenly, she found herself far from it. “When the Gram-mys made that decision for me,” she says, “it felt like I had been taken out of my space that I wanted to be in.”

Olivia Rodrigo took home the award, and Carlile’s frustration has since subsided. She’s quick to acknowledge that the cat-egorization was also “a great compliment. I had to look at the juxtaposition of those two issues and come to a peaceful place with

it,” she says. There was something cool, she admits, about being “in pop with all them kids.”

And even with that category relocation, she still managed a very Brandi Carlile 2022 Grammys. She garnered four other nomina-tions: two more for “Right On Time,” one for best American roots performance for her feature on Brandy Clark’s “Same Devil” and a song of the year nod for her Alicia Keys collaboration, “A Beautiful Noise.” In true Carlile fashion, “A Beautiful Noise” was recorded to encourage voting in the 2020 election and created by an all-female song-writing team. And thanks to that, two of the writers got their first-ever Grammy nomina-tion, including Ghana-born artist Amanfu — a Girls Just Wanna Weekend alum. Carlile hopes artists will one day be able to define the categories in which they’re placed. In the meantime, she’ll keep helping them do so far from awards show stages.

“Communities are so important,” she says. “You should be able to choose which one you’re a part of.”

This story originally appeared in the June 4, 2022, issue of Billboard.

Spring Awakening 2022 Was Sacrificed for Profitability, Owners SayBY DAVE BROOKS

It was the Midwest’s biggest dance music party for most of the last decade and the crown jewel-turned-Kryptonite of Robert F.X. Siller-

man’s EDM empire — but on May 17, Spring Awakening’s current owners announced the festival’s highly anticipated return was be-ing delayed to help shore up the company’s bottom line.

The 2022 Spring Awakening scheduled for July 8-10 is being pushed back to 2023 so that its owners, LiveOne, can keep their

promise to investors to deliver “positive adjusted earnings” in the current fiscal year, chairman and CEO Robert Ellin explained during a May 19 investor summit — two days after officially announcing that the event was being postponed until 2023. Adjusted earnings effectively means profitability, with adjustments made to account for costs and expenses.

It was disappointing news for fans eager to celebrate the return of the festival created in 2008 by React Presents. A 2022 version would have marked the 10th anniversary of its move from Chicago’s Congress Theater to the much larger Soldier Field in 2012 with a lineup that included Skrillex, Af-rojack, Diplo, A-Trak, Benny Bena-ssi and Dillon Francis.

Several major artists from the 2012 show had agreed to play the 2022 festival, but achieving profitability, Ellin explained, had to take priority this quarter as interest rates rise and Wall Street’s appetite for specula-tive growth stocks cooled (LiveOne’s share price is down 51% in 2022).

“We plan to bring the Spring Awakening Music Festival (SAMF) back in 2023. We love the brand and the fans! Chicago has always been its home, and we look forward to returning,” a company spokesperson told Billboard in an email. “We are confident that next year’s SAMF will be a success both creatively and financially. In addition, LiveOne continues to consolidate its opera-tions and remains focused on capitalizing upon its significant revenue growth over the past two years.”

LiveOne purchased Spring Awakening in exchange for $2.4 million worth of LiveOne stock in late 2021 and then lost $3.5 million staging a test-run event in October 2021 ahead of what was supposed to be a big 10th anniversary bash in July 2022.

LiveOne — formerly LiveXLive — is a streaming platform for music, live events and podcasts, and while the company does broadcast festival content to its users, festival promotion is not LiveOne’s core business. That is a major disadvantage in today’s competitive festival market where it is difficult to achieve scale without own-ing and operating a half-dozen festivals. Going forward, Ellin said, the company will

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only focus on events that are demonstrably profitable, either through presale tickets or sponsorships.

“If we don’t feel comfortable enough the event can either be break-even or profitable, we’re going to pass” for the year, Ellin told Needham analyst Laura Martin during the May 19 investor conference.

Spring Awakening’s poor performance is an anomaly when compared to other SFX properties spun off by SFX’s senior credi-tor Andrew Axelrod of Axar Capital. SFX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2016 after Sillerman failed to secure financing to take the company private. The company’s assets — EDM festivals, concert promoters and technology platforms like streaming service Beatport and ticketing company Flavorus — were reorganized under a new music brand called LiveStyle led by former AEG Live CEO Randy Philips, who was charged with their management and sales. Early on, Axelrod and Philips sold Rock in Rio to Live Nation, signed a deal to sell both the Paylogic and Flavorus ticketing systems to Vivendi-backed See Tickets, and signed a company-wide agreement to sell tickets for all LiveStyle events through See Tickets. In 2020 the company sold James “Disco Donnie” Estopinal back his company Disco Donnie Presents, and last year it sold Dutch promotion company ID&T to Superstruct Entertainment, a fast-growing European concert promotion firm led by former Live Nation Electronic president James Barton with financial backing from Providence Equity.

LiveStyle is also close to selling off New York promotion company Made Events, which owns and operates the Electric Zoo festival on Randall’s Island in New York, sources told Billboard. When that deal closes, LiveStyle will have successfully and profitably closed out its North America position, although Axelrod got much less for Spring Awakening than he had hoped.

Axelrod orginally reached a deal with Ellin to sell React Presents and Spring Awakening to LiveOne in 2020 using a funding mechanism known as convertible debt. Axelrod wanted $2 million in cash for React and Spring Awakening but knew that growth-media companies like LiveOne were

only able to make acquisitions using their own stock.

To be flexible, Axelrod agreed to sell the React assets to Ellin for convertible debt, meaning that Ellin could take over the fes-tival immediately and would have two years to pay Axelrod back in cash, with an option for Axelrod to accept LiveOne stock instead of cash if shares of the company hit certain price targets.

Unfortunately for Axelrod, the deal didn’t work out that way. A month after the deal closed, COVID-19 hit, and Spring Awaken-ing 2020 was canceled. After LiveOne lost $3.5 million on the 2021 event, Axelrod agreed to accept $2.4 million worth of LiveOne stock from Ellin instead of cash. Five months later, the value of LiveOne’s stock had fallen 70%, dropping the value of Axelrod’s LiveOne shares to approximately $700,000.

Ironically, the $1.7 million haircut Axelrod took pales in comparison to the $5.8 mil-lion loss React Presents took when Siller-man filed for bankruptcy protection before React’s partners received their full earnout from SFX’s acquisition of the company. React founders Jefferey Callahan and Lucas King did, however, have a signed personal guar-antee from Sillerman covering the 2014 sale of React to SFX, stipulating that if SFX was unable to pay the React Presents earnout, Sillerman would be personally liable for any outstanding money owed to Callahan and King. The men sued Sillerman, won a $7 mil-lion judgement against him and pushed him into personal bankruptcy months before his death on Nov. 24, 2019, at age 71.

Today, King is a partner in the North Coast Music Festival, one of about a half dozen EDM-specific festivals and special engagements that take place each year in and around Chicago.

Ellin says he plans to bring Spring Awak-ening back in 2023, if it makes financial sense or complements one of the many new ventures he’s been working on this month, like his idea for a reality show where social media influencers live together and train for a series of boxing matches. He’s offered Tik-Tok influencers the Island Boys $1 million to star in the series and plans to announce the fighters lineup for the series soon.

Ben Kline and Cris Lacy Named Co-Presidents of Warner Music NashvilleBY MELINDA NEWMAN

Warner Music Nashville executive vp/GM Ben Kline and executive vp of A&R Cris Lacy have

been officially promoted to co-presidents effective immediately, the label announced Thursday (June 2). Chairman & CEO John “Espo” Esposito will remain in his role through the end of the year and will transi-tion to Chairman Emeritus at the top of 2023. Billboard broke the news of the pend-ing leadership transition in April.

Under Esposito, who has been at WMN’s helm since 2009 after coming over from WEA Corp. as president and CEO, the division’s market share has quadrupled, ac-cording to parent Warner Music Group. The label also touts its artists have earned more than 300 gold and platinum RIAA certifica-tions.

“Under Espo’s brilliant guidance over the past 13 years, our Nashville team has built superstar careers, attracted original new voices, innovated in the digital world, and championed the creative community, said Max Lousada, CEO, Warner Recorded Music in a statement. “I’ve no doubt Cris and Ben will grow and evolve our artist-first philosophy with ingenuity, skill, and style. In the streaming era, country music is in-creasingly becoming global music, and Ben and Cris make a dynamic duo to lead our pioneering Nashville label into the future. And I’m pleased we’ll continue to have the benefit of Espo’s sage advice and wide-rang-ing industry relationships.”

The pair have been Esposito’s heir ap-parents since 2019, the same year Esposito signed a new multi-year contract. In an interview with Billboard about his new deal

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at the time, he acknowledged that Kline and Lacy, who had been promoted to exec vps earlier that year, were already being prepped: “I’m putting all sorts of weight on their shoulders. And the great news is since we did that promotion, they both have risen to an even higher level,” he said. “I’m happy knowing I can give them so much to do so they can become as much the face of the label as me. And that has taken a weight off of me. If I walk in the room, [people] assume I can make the final decision. Now they know that either of them can make a decision [too].”

Lacy, who joined Warner Music Nashville in 2005, said in today’s statement about her ascension,“When an artist joins Warner Nashville, they’re entrusting us not only with their music, but with their dreams. Artists are storytellers, and it’s our job to give them the best environment to bring those stories to life. I want to thank Espo for building such a rich, fertile culture for real creativity and innovation. Artists have a lot of options for getting their music into the world, and our team is second to none in helping them make and deliver records that move the needle and open hearts. Ben and I have been working together for years. I can’t wait to build upon our partnership, as we take this great company to new heights.”

Kline, who joined in 2014, added, “When I came on board at WMN eight years ago, I was instantly struck not only by the tremen-dous level of expertise, but by the spirit of camaraderie, collaboration, and enthusiasm that Espo fostered throughout the company. Cris likes to call us a village, and I love that description – we’re a tightly knit group of colleagues and artists working together within the amazing Warner Music ecosys-tem. Our entire team is deeply committed to custom-tailored, long-term artist develop-ment, and I’m looking forward to working side-by-side with Cris to keep on making this the best place in the business for coun-try artists to reach fans around the world.”

“I’m incredibly proud of all we’ve been able to achieve and all I know the company will achieve in the years ahead. It’s been tru-ly inspiring to watch Cris and Ben grow into their new roles,” said Esposito. “They’re two of the most innovative, passionate, and de-

voted music people in the Nashville commu-nity, tirelessly dedicated to helping artists achieve their visions and supporting them at every stage of their careers. Between Ben’s business acumen and Cris’ fantastic A&R in-stincts, they’ll be a world-class duo leading the best team in the business, all driven by a love of the music and the belief in authentic artistry. My last twenty years at WMG have been the most rewarding of my career, filled with incredible people and experiences, and it’s been deeply gratifying to be embraced so warmly by the Nashville community.”

WMN’s roster includes Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Dan + Shay, Brett Eldredge, Cole Swindell, Zac Brown Band, Ashley Mc-Bryde, Ingrid Andress, Cody Johnson and Gabby Barrett.

Sevenn Files Copyright Claims Against Alok in Brazilian CourtBY ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

Dance music produc-ers Sean and Kevin Brauer are formally pursuing copyright claims for 19 songs they say they

worked on for the Brazilian DJ Alok over five years, for which they say they were denied proper credit.

In a filing in a São Paulo civil court last month, the Brauer brothers, who have performed as the dance duo Sevenn, ask the court to initiate a technical review of the au-thorship of the releases, which include some of Alok’s better-known songs, including “Favela” featuring Ina Wroldson, Alok and his brother Bhaskar’s “Fuego,” and a remix of Mick Jagger’s “Gotta Get A Grip.”

The songs were produced while the Brauers — who are Brazilian-American dual nationals — were living mostly in Brazil, but their Rio de Janeiro-based attorney Edu-ardo Senna says they could decide to shift their copyright claims to a U.S. court as most of Alok’s recorded music earnings come

from the U.S. “I am not ruling out taking this case to a U.S. jurisdiction,” says Senna.

The filing on May 5, which is an “Action for the Advance Production of Evidence,” a legal step to pursue a copyright claim under Brazilian civil law, requests the court to direct Alok to provide “technical expert evidence in the field of musicology” related to the authorship of the compositions.

The Brauers, Senna says, “participated in some way in all of the songs.”

Kevin and Sean, who were raised in a walled compound outside Rio as members of the religious movement Children of God, previously told Billboard that from 2016 to 2020 they worked on at least 14 tracks with Alok as unpaid and uncredited producers – and that they were largely responsible for creating the Brazilian Bass sound that Alok named and popularized.

Over those years, Alok emerged as the biggest electronic music act in South America, in terms of his touring fees, social media reach and streaming hits like “Hear Me Now” with Bruno Martini featur-ing Zeeba.

Senna says that after studying their music production files, the Brauer brothers de-cided to push for an investigation into more tracks than Billboard’s probe pointed to in January.

Included in the discovery action are 13 of 14 songs analyzed by Billboard; “United” by Armin van Buuren, Vini Vici and Alok featuring Zafrir, is not among the 19. (The Brauers previously claimed to Billboard they deserved at least 10% songwriting credit for the track.) Additional compositions include 2020’s “Alive (It Feels Like)” and Alok’s remix of “Piece of Your Heart” by Meduza featuring Goodboys.

The court filing also lists the remix “BYOB,” Alok and Sevenn’s initial collabora-tion, for which both acts are credited. Senna says it was included “to determine the true percentage of each one’s participation.” Kevin Brauer tells Billboard he wanted it to be considered in “the broader picture of Sevenn ghost producing for Alok” as this “was another case of Alok stamping his name on basically finished work.”

While the court filing contains no es-timates about royalties owed, Billboard‘s

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analysis of Spotify data for 12 of the 14 tracks the Brauers say they received no compen-sation for showed they would have earned about $263,000 as of January — $223,000 in publishing royalties and another $40,000 in producer’s fees — on Spotify alone. The es-timate could grow to more than $1.3 million when royalties from plays at other digital services and radio are taken into account, not to mention global sales.

At the end of the preliminary discovery process in São Paulo, the Brauers will decide which songs to sue Alok for copyright in-fringement, Senna says. The number could end up being less than the 19 listed in the court document. “One of the objectives of this preparatory phase of the process is to avoid making inconsequential, irresponsible demands,” the lawyer says.

Alok, who has been touring in the U.S. the past two weeks – with shows in Chicago, Brooklyn and at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas — has yet to be served with the lawsuit and his legal team has yet to file a response in court, Senna says. The Brazilian DJ has broadly denied the Brauers’ claims, telling Billboard that the brothers were “spinning a false narrative” and “trying to portray themselves as victims.”

Alok has not agreed to be interviewed by Billboard. Instead, following publication of the initial article he appeared on Insta-gram Stories, where he has 27 million fol-lowers, for more than 10 minutes to defend his authorship of some songs while refuting claims that he had failed to compensate or credit the Brauers properly.

Alok and his lawyer, Robson Cunha, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday (June 1) about the Brauers’ legal action. In a response to Billboard in April, before the suit was filed, Cunha said “there is no evidence” against Alok and said he had instructed his client not to respond to “these frivolous and baseless attacks.”

The DJ is signed to Warner Music Group’s Spinnin’ Records for recorded mu-sic and to Universal Music Publishing Group (as of November). A Warner spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.

Alok has portrayed Billboard’s original investigation as an orchestrated effort by Sevenn and his estranged former man-

ager, Marcos “Marquinhos” Araújo, to disparage his image. Araújo, who denies the claim, has since taken over the manage-ment of Kevin Brauer, who now tours solo as Sevenn; he also signed a three-year deal in November with William Morris Endeavor for global touring representation. (Alok is also repped by WME.)

Alok says the Brazilian Bass subgenre, though not in name, dates to 2010 — not to Sean Brauer’s initial efforts in 2015 — and that he “championed” the sound in 2012. He also claims Sean’s bass sounds were created using a publicly available preset in music-production software Ableton.

Alok Drops Counter ClaimThe Brauers’ copyright action came after

Alok in February quietly dropped a counter claim for five tracks he says Sevenn owes him credit and compensation, including “BOOM,” a collaboration with Tiësto, and “BYOB.”

Cunha told the civil court in São Paulo that Alok expected to add the authorship claims for the songs to a pending case in Goiânia, where the two sides have been liti-gating the rights to “Un Ratito,” a collabora-tion with Alok, Latin artists Luis Fonsi, Lu-nay and Lenny Tavárez; and Brazilian singer-actress Juliette.

That has yet to happen. The two sides have been battling over jurisdiction, with Kevin Brauer arguing that the cases should be decided in São Paulo where his action is based on copyright law. Meanwhile, Alok, who lives in São Paulo, has pushed for Goiâ-nia, a city based in Brazil’s interior, where his “Un Ratito” claim revolves around Brazil’s Civil Rights Framework for the In-ternet, a law passed in 2014 that essentially created a bill or rights for internet users, guaranteeing net neutrality, free expression online and the right to privacy.

After Alok released “Un Ratito” in Janu-ary, Kevin claimed he was denied producing credit despite authoring the earliest versions of the song, and that Alok did not consult him about specific publishing splits. Alok, who credited Kevin as one of 14 songwrit-ers, denies Kevin was the main author of the final released version of the song and says he replaced musical parts, including Kevin’s original lead guitar, with other musicians.

Alok’s own legal action against Kevin asks the court to recognize him as sole creator of “Un Ratito” and award him damages total-ing just over 1 million reais ($210,000).

After Kevin requested takedowns of “Un Ratito” on the major streaming ser-vices, YouTube complied initially, before a Brazilian judge ordered the video streamer to allow it to be restored.

In their filing last month, the Brauers say that in the days leading up to the publica-tion of Billboard’s initial investigation, Alok’s legal team filed two actions, including the copyright counter suit and another involv-ing a contract dispute with artist manage-ment company Artist Factory, essentially to try to blunt the impact of the coming Bill-board story.

On May 13, a week after their legal filing, the Brauers’ mother, Jodie Brauer, who raised eight of her nine children in the cult-like religious community in Rio, died “peacefully in her sleep” from pancreatic cancer in Paso Robles, Calif., listening to Ra-diohead and The Beatles, with eight of her children “holding her hand,” Kevin says.

He has since taken to the road as Sevenn and is touring in Brazil, the U.S. and Mexico. Alok also has a full touring schedule over the next two months, featuring a weekly residency at Hï nightclub in Ibiza starting in July and a slot at Tomorrowland in Belgium.

“Our goal now is to come to a fair agree-ment and to have an official response to the allegations Alok made against Sevenn,” says Kevin, “which are still circulating even though he backed them up with not much more than a charming smile.”

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Cafuné Sign to Elektra After ‘Tek It’ Goes Viral on TikTokBY ELIAS LEIGHT

At the end of March, Noah Yoo was sitting at a restaurant in Brooklyn, catching up on emails. Yoo plays guitar and writes songs

for Cafuné, a duo he started with Sedona Schat in college, and one of his emails alerted him to the fact that their 2019 song “Tek It” had been Shazamed close to 3,000 times that month, “way higher” than usual. Yoo was taken aback. “I hit up a friend who works in the industry and said, ‘Do you have any tools that might explain what’s going on here?’” he recalls. ‘”Are we getting played in a very popular cafe?’”

The “Tek It”-loving cafe proved hard to track down. But Yoo’s friend came back with another explanation for the sudden uptick of interest in the single, one that’s often associated with Shazam surges in the modern music industry: “They were like, ‘It’s TikTok, you idiot,’” Yoo explains. He didn’t have the app on his phone at the time, but its users had started to incorporate “Tek It” — a compact slice of guitar-pop that camouflages a blunt kiss-off with buoyant riffs and high, pretty harmonies — into their videos. Two months later, versions of “Tek It” have soundtracked over 135,000 TikTok clips and helped to launch Cafuné’s first streaming hit.

The duo released a new video for the single on Thursday (June 2) and announced their signing to Elektra Music Group, which allowed them to quit their day jobs. Perhaps no one is more surprised than Cafuné. “We dreamed of it, but we had gotten to a point where it was like, ‘I accept this is my lifestyle’: We meet one day a week, we work our jobs, we play three or four shows a year,” Schat says. “We never saw this for ourselves,” Yoo agrees.

The pair met at New York University,

where they started attending the Clive Davis Institute in 2012. Both played guitar and wrote songs; they also happened to be “intensely into” bands like Phoenix, Daft Punk, The Strokes, The Killers, and Two Door Cinema Club. (The latter sparked their first-ever conversation.) Yoo worked on one of Schat’s songs sophomore year, and it went well enough for them to form Cafuné as a side project.

At the time, “Sedona was pursuing her own singer-songwriter stuff,” Yoo says, “and I kind of wanted to be a DJ.” Cafuné was a low-pressure outlet — “a way for us to work on stuff and put it out without worrying about branding or anything like that,” as Yoo puts it. “We had peers who were very serious [about breaking into the music industry], and we respected that, but I was like, ‘I don’t want to play the game, I’m not legit enough for that,’” Schat adds. “I just wanted to find someone who I can make music with.”

The pair released their first EP, Love Songs for Other People, in 2015. It opened with “Lay Low,” a thumping electronic track that suggested an alternate route for the group — pop that was more club-friendly. “In 2015, guitars were not in vogue,” Yoo says.

But, he continues, “when we started play-ing shows, we realized the kind of show we wanted to do wasn’t electronic.” And when the two of them wrote tracks together in a room, the results tended to be “more ex-plicitly rock-leaning,” Schat notes. This was reflected on their 2018 single “Least Coast/Little Broken Part,” and when they put out “Tek It/Friction” the following year, “those were like, ‘We are a rock band,’” Schat says. The pair found time to record their debut album, Running, during the first year of the pandemic, and released it in 2021.

One of the quirks of a music industry that’s hyper-focused on TikTok as the force driving streams is that release dates don’t matter all that much anymore. “Tek It” has been available to stream since November 2019. At the end of March, Cafuné was plug-ging along with a little more than 130,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, according to the music analytics company Chartmet-ric. Once the track caught the attention

of TikTok users — first in a wave of anime edit videos, then spreading to more general clips about how “this song makes me really emotional,” with a brief detour into videos where TikTok users tumbled off their beds while listening to “Tek It” — that number ballooned to more than 3 million in just six weeks.

Cafuné’s trajectory — viral TikTok mo-ment followed by major-label signing — has been a constant in the music industry for at least the last three years. “It’s amazing when any artist blows up on TikTok and they get to see their life change,” says Zack Zarrillo, who signed Cafuné along with Johnny Minardi, vp of A&R at Elektra. (Zarrillo also has a joint venture with Elektra, Public Consumption.)

But Zarrillo believes it’s also important to differentiate between acts that have been putting in the leg-work to build a career before a TikTok moment — his management company, Alternate Side, works with several of these, including Yot Club (“YKWIM?” now has over 250 million streams on Spotify alone) and Vundabar (more than 157 million streams for “Alien Blues”) — and those who have not invested time in building that type of runway. Cafuné are “two people who have been best friends making music for a decade,” Zarrillo says. “They want to keep doing this for another 10 years. And hope-fully that second ten years is a lot bigger.”

To that end, the duo is now focused on lining up a run of shows, releasing more music and trying to ensure that the listen-ers who play “Tek It” also make their way through the mouth of the fandom funnel and get to Running, according to Minardi. (He liked that Cafuné’s track “Empty Tricks” reminded him of Imogen Heap.) “It’s amazing that you’re having this thing happen on the internet,” Minardi adds, “but there’s also this need for connecting with fans.”

For now, a pair of musicians used to doing everything on a shoestring budget will enjoy a chance to work in more lavish settings — “They were able to use an engineer for the first time” when recording an acoustic track, Zarrillo says — and the time to fully commit themselves to music. “I’ve been working in food service sort of my entire life,” Schat

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notes. “It definitely feels very surreal. Is this the end of that?”

“Having the opportunity to expand what we think is possible because of this [mo-ment],” she adds, “is really cool.”

The Top 10 Vinyl Album Sales Weeks in the Modern EraBY KEITH CAULFIELD

As the music-on-vinyl comeback continues in the U.S., a new modern-era sales record is bro-ken seemingly every few months.

Most recently, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House sold 182,000 copies on vinyl in its first week in the U.S. — breaking the record for the largest single-week sales of an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991.

The record he broke was set just last November — by the debut of Taylor’s Swift’s Red [Taylor’s Version], with 114,000 vinyl LPs in its first week). With that, Swift had broken her own record, set a few months earlier, upon the May 2021 release of Evermore on vinyl (102,000).

In total, the top 10 biggest-selling weeks for a vinyl album in the modern-era (again, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991) have all occurred in the last 12 months. Thus, it’s quite likely that by the end of 2022, this roundup could get shuffled by the arrival of any number of upcoming albums on vinyl.

The biggest selling week for a vinyl LP since 1991 is, as noted, the debut frame of Styles’ Harry’s House (182,000; week ending May 26, 2022). The top five weeks are rounded out by the opening weeks of Red (Taylor’s Version) (114,000; week ending Nov. 18, 2021), Adele’s 30 (108,000; week ending Nov. 25, 2021), Swift’s Ever-more (102,000; week ending June 3, 2021) and Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour (76,000; week ending Aug. 26, 2021).

Nos. 6 and 7 on the ranking are the debut week of Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever (73,000; week ending Aug. 5, 2021) and Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (67,000; week ending Oct. 7, 2021). At Nos. 8 and 9 are the fifth and second weeks of Adele’s 30 (59,000 and 50,500; weeks ending Dec. 23 and Dec. 2, 2021, respectively) and the debut of Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost (nearly 50,000; week ending April 21, 2022).

So far in 2022 (through May 26), 41% of all albums sold in the U.S. have been on vinyl. And, it’s expected that 2022 will mark the 17th consecutive year of growth for vinyl album sales in the U.S. In 2021, for the first time since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, vinyl albums outsold CD albums for the year – and vinyl became the leading format for album purchases overall in the U.S.

Music Industry Congratulates Australia’s New Arts Minister, Readies ‘Roadmap’ to GrowthBY LARS BRANDLE

BRISBANE, Australia — Australian politics’ worst-kept secret was made formal Wednesday (June 1), when Tony Burke was sworn in

as federal minister of the arts. Burke, an avid music fan who has enamored himself with the domestic music industry and, during his years in the shadow cabinet, pledged to champion the creative industries. He can now prove his support as Austra-lia’s arts minister, an appointment that was confirmed earlier this week when prime minister elect Anthony Albanese unveiled his cabinet.

The incoming minister will be expected to deliver a “national cultural policy that recognizes the true social, cultural and economic value of music – and of creativity at large – to the lives of Australians,” reads a statement Thursday (June 2) from ARIA and PPCA.

In welcoming Burke to his high-profile new role, the trade bodies note Burke “has an obvious passion for local music and un-derstands the opportunities and challenges that the industry faces.” The message con-tinues, “for too long our industry has been lobbying for measurable and considered support taking into account the disruption over the last years; we look forward to work-ing with the minister on a roadmap to real recovery and growth.”

Burke is a regular, visible presence at concerts and music industry events around the country. He attended the most recent Bluesfest with Albanese during the Easter long weekend, and he was among guests at the 2022 APRA Music Awards and the 2022 Australian Women In Music Awards in Brisbane, where he presented one of the night’s 20 categories.

APRA AMCOS also welcomed Burke, not-ing “we look forward to working with you and the Albanese Government on a plan to develop the next chapter of success for the great Australian music industry.”

The next chapter, the industry hopes, will form around a three-point plan, presented by an alliance of 16 music industry organiza-tions ahead of the May 21 election.

In an open letter under the headline “Live, Local, Digital, Global,” creatives called on the nation’s leaders to prioritize issues around direct investment in the cre-ation of homegrown music; skills develop-ment and global exports; incentivizing the use of local content on streaming and broad-cast platforms; a federally implemented and government-backed insurance system, similar to those in place in New Zealand and element; and more.

Australia is a Top 10-ranked market, ac-cording to the IFPI. Wholesale revenue in 2021 came to A$565.8 million, up 4.4% from A$542 million in 2020, for a 15-year high, ARIA reported in March. Those results, however, were tempered by the IFPI’s

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findings that Australia “was the lowest performing market globally,” the Federa-tion’s CEO Frances Moore confirmed during the presentation of the Global Music Report 2022. After two-plus years in a state of deep freeze, the domestic touring market is warming up.

Also on Thursday, ARIA and PPCA wel-comed the appointment of Mark Dreyfus as Attorney-General, a position with respon-sibility for copyright; and new communica-tions minister Michelle Rowland.

Separately, Ford Ennals, CEO of Commer-cial Radio Australia, welcomed Rowland as “an excellent appointment” who “has deep media expertise and the radio industry wel-comes her stated commitment to bringing Australia’s media laws into the digital age.”

With his own social post, British singer, songwriter and activist Billy Bragg gave a shout out to “old mate Albo,” declaring the new PM as “the right person for the job. He has a socialism of the heart.”

McCrary Sisters Vocalist Deborah McCrary Dies at 67BY JESSICA NICHOLSON 

Deborah McCrary, a member of the sibling vocal quartet the Mc-Crary Sisters, has died at the age of 67.

On their official Facebook page, the Mc-Crary Sisters shared a message on Wednes-day (June 1) from member Alfreda McCrary. She wrote, “My sister Deborah McCrary just got her wings! Gone but not forgotten! I thank God for her life she was our baby! We love you Deborah!”

McCrary, born June 17, 1954, was sur-rounded by music and ministry from the beginning. The sisters’ father, the late Rev. Samuel H. McCrary, was an original member of the gospel quartet The Fairfield Four. McCrary spent most of her adult life working as a nurse before joining her sisters

Ann, Regina, and Alfreda to form The Mc-Crary Sisters, after making their debut with a performance at Nashville’s Station Inn.

The group has released four studio albums, starting with 2010’s Our Journey. They have also become in-demand vocalists on several recordings, including providing background vocals for “Choctaw County Affair” from Carrie Underwood’s 2015 album Storyteller, as well as “Let There Be Peace” from Underwood’s holiday album My Gift.

The group’s vocals are also featured on “Holy Water” from Miranda Lambert’s 2019 Wildcard album, “Do Right By Me” from Margo Price’s 2017 album All American Made, and “All of the Women” on Allison Russell’s 2021 album Outside Child. They’ve also contributed vocals to projects recorded by Sheryl Crow, Mary Gauthier, Yelawolf, and more. Members of the group have shared the stage with Elvis, Bob Dylan, Wil-lie Nelson, Mary J. Blige and others.

In 2013, Deborah suffered a severe stroke, but continued singing as part of the group. In 2015, the McCrary Sisters also teamed up with The Fairfield Four for the PBS broadcast special Rock My Soul, which cel-ebrated the two groups’ shared gospel music heritage. The McCrary Sisters are also part of the annual Americana Music Honors & Awards’ house band.

Harry Styles Boasts His Best Week Yet on Streaming Songs ChartBY KEVIN RUTHERFORD

Harry Styles enjoys the second-best week for any artist in the top 10 of Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart in 2022, as new al-

bum Harry’s House accounts for seven songs in the ranking’s top 10 dated June 4.

Leading the way, lead single “As It Was”

returns to No. 1 for a second week, zooming 10-1 with 35.6 million official U.S. streams in the May 20-26 tracking period, accord-ing to Luminate. That’s its second-biggest single week, behind the 43.8 million streams it accrued upon its first full week of streams toward the April 16 survey.

“Was” is followed by “Late Night Talk-ing,” which starts at No. 3 with 27 million streams. “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” (20.9 million) and “Matilda” (20.4 million) also debut in the top five at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.

With seven appearances in the top 10 at once, Styles is outranked only by Future in 2022 for most concurrent top 10s. The rap-per occupied eight of the top 10 on the May 14 list following the release of his album I Never Liked You. One of its songs, “Wait for U” featuring Drake and Tems, is the highest non-Styles song on the June 4 chart, ranking at No. 2 with 32.3 million streams.

The entirety of House appears on Stream-ing Songs, giving Styles 13 concurrent slots on the chart, 12 of them debuts. Prior to House, Styles had never possessed more than two songs on the 50-position Stream-ing Songs chart at once. He had two at one time for six weeks in 2019 and 2020 during the charting history of “Adore You” and “Watermelon Sugar” from his previous full-length, Fine Line.

“Was” had previously become Styles’ top-charting tune on Streaming Songs upon its No. 1 debut April 16. His best pre-Harry’s House, “Watermelon Sugar,” peaked at No. 12 in July 2020.

As previously reported, “Was” crowns the Billboard Hot 100 dated June 4, and all 13 of the new album’s songs appear on the chart, while House itself rules the Billboard 200.

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Facebook’s Longtime COO Sheryl Sandberg Steps DownBY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sheryl Sandberg, the No. 2 executive at Facebook owner Meta, is step-ping down. Sandberg has served

as chief operating officer at the social media giant for 14 years. She joined from Google in 2008, four years before Facebook went public.

“When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life,” Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday.

Sandberg has led Facebook — now Meta’s — advertising business and was responsible for nurturing it from its infancy into an over $100 billion-a-year powerhouse. She’s leaving Meta in the fall and will continue to serve on the company’s board.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in his own Facebook post that Javier Olivan will serve as Meta’s new COO, although it will be a different job than the one Sandberg held for the past 14 years.

“It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more ef-ficient and rigorous,” Zuckerberg wrote.

While Sandberg has long been Zuck-erberg’s No. 2, even sitting next to him — pre-pandemic, at least — in the company’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters, she also had a very public-facing job, meeting with lawmakers, holding focus groups and speaking out on issues such as women in the workplace and, most recently, abortion.

“I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrat-ed, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately

from our products,” Zuckerberg wrote.Sandberg, who lost her husband Dave

Goldberg suddenly in 2015, said she is “not entirely sure what the future will bring.”

“But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women,” she wrote, adding that she is also getting married this summer, and that par-enting their expanded family of five children will also be a part of this future.

THE ADULT IN THE ROOMSandberg, 52, first helped Google build

what quickly became the internet’s biggest — and most lucrative — advertising network before leaving that company to take on the challenge of transforming Facebook’s freewheeling social network into a money-making business while also helping to men-tor Zuckerberg.

She proved to be exactly what the then-immature Zuckerberg and the company needed at the right time, helping to pave the way to Facebook’s highly anticipated initial public offering of stock a decade ago.

While Zuckerberg remained Facebook’s visionary and controlling shareholder, Sand-berg became the engine of a business fueled by a rapidly growing digital ad business that has become nearly as successful as the one that she helped cobbled together around Google’s dominant search engine.

Just like Google’s ad empire, Facebook’s business thrived on its ability to keep its users coming back for more of its free service while leveraging its social network-ing services to learn more about people’s interests, habits, and whereabouts — a nosy model that has repeatedly entangled the company into debates about whether a right to personal privacy still exists in an increas-ingly digital age.

As one of the top female executives in technology, Sandberg has at times has been held up as an inspiration for working women — a role she seemed to embrace with a best-selling 2013 book called Lean In: Women, Work and the Will To Lead.

But Lean In received immediate criti-cism. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called Sandberg a “PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots,” and critics

suggested she is the wrong person to lead a women’s movement.

She addressed some of that criticism in a subsequent book that addressed the death of her husband, Dave Goldberg. In 2015 she became a symbol of heartbreaking grief when Goldberg, died during an accident while working out on vacation, widowing her with her two children as she continued to help run one of the world’s best-known companies.

CRACKS IN THE FACADEIn more recent years, Sandberg became

a polarizing figure amid revelations of how some of her business decisions for Facebook helped propagate misinformation and hate speech. Critics and a company whistle-blower contend that the consequences have undermined democracy and caused severe emotional problems for teens, particularly girls.

The author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, said Sandberg is as responsible as anyone for what Zuboff considers one of Big Tech’s most insidious invention: the collection and organization of data on social media users’ behavior and preferences. That data was shared with advertisers — who might also sell it to data brokers — and proved immensely profitable. Sandberg did it, wrote Zuboff, “through the artful manipulation of Facebook’s culture of intimacy and sharing.”

Zuboff calls Sandberg the “Typhoid Mary” of surveillance capitalism.

“Sandberg may fancy herself a feminist, but under her leadership Facebook has become a right-wing playground where misogyny, racism, disinformation, violent organizing, and hateful conspiracy theories grow and spread,” said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, a gender justice advocacy organization, in an April 22 email calling for Sandberg’s resignation. “For years, Sandberg has been in an optimal posi-tion to make Facebook safer for women, but like CEO Mark Zuckerberg, she has consis-tently failed to take action.”

Sandberg has had some public missteps at the company, including her attempt to deflect blame from Facebook for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In an interview later that month that was

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streamed by Reuters, she said she thought the events of the day were “largely orga-nized on platforms that don’t have our abili-ties to stop hate, don’t have our standards and don’t have our transparency.”

That turned out to be untrue. Internal documents, revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen later that year, showed that Facebook’s own employees were concerned about the company’s halting and often reversed response to rising extremism in the U.S.

“Haven’t we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?” one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. “We’ve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn’t be surprised it’s now out of control.”

___AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke

contributed to this story.

Johnny Depp Awarded More Than $10 Million in Libel Suit Against Amber HeardBY ASSOCIATED PRESS 

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A jury on Wednesday (June 1) award-ed Johnny Depp more than $10 million in his libel lawsuit against

ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Depp before and during their brief marriage.

The jury also found in favor of Heard, who said she was defamed by Depp’s lawyer when he called her abuse allegations a hoax. The jury awarded her $2 million in dam-ages.

The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help re-

store his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage. Throughout the trial, fans — overwhelmingly on Depp’s side — lined up overnight for coveted court-room seats. Spectators who couldn’t get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside.

Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbro-ken.

“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,” she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.

Depp, who was not inside the courtroom Wednesday, sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure repre-senting domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, includ-ing a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually as-saulted with a liquor bottle.

Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body.

In some ways, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed in the United Kingdom against a British tabloid after he was de-scribed as a “wife beater.” The judge in that case ruled in the newspaper’s favor after finding that Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse.

In the Virginia case, Depp had to prove not only that he never assaulted Heard, but that Heard’s article — which focused pri-

marily on public policy related to domestic violence — defamed him. He also had to prove that Heard wrote the article with ac-tual malice. And to claim damages he had to prove that her article caused the damage to his reputation as opposed to any number of articles before and after Heard’s piece that detailed the allegations against him.

Depp, in his final testimony to the jury, said the trial gave him a chance to clear his name in a way that he the U.K trial never allowed.

“No matter what happens, I did get here and I did tell the truth and I have spoken up for what I’ve been carrying on my back, reluctantly, for six years.” Depp said.

Heard, on the other hand, said the trial has been an ordeal inflicted by an orches-trated smear campaign led by Depp.

“Johnny promised me — promised me — that he’d ruin my life, that he’d ruin my career. He’d take my life from me,” Heard said in her final testimony.

The case captivated millions through its gavel-to-gavel television coverage and impassioned followers on social media who dissected everything from the actors’ man-nerisms to the possible symbolism of what they were wearing. Both performers emerge from the trial with reputations in tatters with unclear prospects for their careers.

Eric Rose, a crisis management and com-munications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a “classic murder-suicide.”

“From a reputation management per-spective, there can be no winners,” he said. “They’ve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained ei-ther Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”

Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nomi-nee, had until recent years been a bankable star. His turn as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film helped turn it into a global franchise, but he’s lost that role. (Heard and Depp’s teams each blame the other.) He was also replaced as the title character in the third “Fantastic Beasts” spin-off film, “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

Despite testimony at the trial that he

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could be violent, abusive and out of control, Depp received a standing ovation Tuesday night in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall. He has previously toured with Joe Perry and Alice Cooper as the group Hollywood Vampires.

Heard’s acting career has been more mod-est, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due out next year.

Depp’s lawyers fought to keep the case in Virginia, in part because state law provided some legal advantages compared with California, where the two reside. A judge ruled that Virginia was an acceptable forum for the case because The Washington Post’s printing presses and online servers are in the county.

Publishing Briefs: Margo Price Signs With Reservoir; Norton Launches Sync LibraryBY KRISTIN ROBINSON

Reservoir and One Riot have signed a new deal with Margo Price and her co-writer and life partner Jeremy Ivey, includ-

ing the global rights to their catalogs plus future works. Fresh off the deluxe release of her Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson-produced That’s How Rumors Get Start-ed, Price says she is “grateful that One Riot/Reservoir recognized the value in a couple of misfits like us. It is the perfect fit, and we feel at home already.”

On June 1, Norton Records launched its own sync site, Norton Records Music. Beginning with a library of over 1,400 songs from the company’s archives, the new site is the company’s “new step into realizing [its] catalog to the world.” Forty years strong, Norton has built its business by uncovering forgotten classics in everything from blues

to rockabilly to garage rock and reissuing them on vinyl. Their catalog has already ap-peared in a number of ads for major brands (Tropicana, Ralph Lauren, Volkswagon, MLB, etc.) and film and TV (The Simpsons, Patton Oswalt’s No Reason to Complain, and more), and the site is designed to make synchronization even easier, offering a one stop online shop for both publishing and master licensing.

Kobalt has signed Nigerian Afrobeat artist Omah Lay to a global publishing administration deal, including sync and creative services. The deal will see Kobalt administering both the star’s back catalog and future works. In a statement about the agreement, Lay’s manager Valentine Ngaji says, “Omah is special, and special talents like him require special attention. There-fore, we can’t think of a better administrator to take care of his masterpieces than Kobalt. They are big fans of his works, and we are certain they are in good hands.”

Nordic Music Partners has announced its launch as a new independent publishing company, owned and operated by interna-tionally successful songwriters, producers and industry folks. With the creator-driven focus, NMP boasts branches in Helsinki, Oslo, Amsterdam and more, offering an “extensive network” for its signees across Europe and in the U.S. as well. The com-pany will begin with a roster of about 15 songwriters with more in the pipeline, and signees will be offered hands-on develop-ment by the multi-platinum selling creatives that run NMP. The company is funded by angel investors in Finland and the U.S., and it hopes to become continental Europe’s leading music publisher by shifting the paradigm of publishing from ownership to partnership.

Peermusic U.K. has inked a global publishing deal with Brian Higgins. Best known for his work on Cher‘s “Believe” as well as cuts with Kylie Minogue, The Sugababes, Girls Aloud and more, Higgins new deal will only encompass his future works. His catalog was purchased in 2020 by Hipgnosis and still remains in its control.

Pro Music Rights (PMR), a U.S.-based performing rights organization, has come to an agreement with TikTok to license

PMR’s catalog of over 2.5M works for the video sharing app. Users can now sync PMR-controlled tracks from A$AP Rocky, Wiz Khalifa, Pharrell, and more for social content. In a statement, Jake P. Noch, CEO of PMR, said that TikTok “is a wonderful platform and will be an outstanding online venue to expand the audience for our music, since it is routinely used by millions all over the world.”

Zach Bryan Earns Historic Streaming Debut on Rock, Americana/Folk Album ChartsBY KEVIN RUTHERFORD

Zach Bryan achieves his first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Rock Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts, as American

Heartbreak debuts atop both rankings dated June 4.

As previously reported, the 34-track set also starts at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, where it’s likewise Bryan’s first leader.

In the May 20-26 tracking period, Heart-break earned 71,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 65,000 are from streaming equivalent units. That translates to the best streaming week for any LP on Top Rock Albums since the chart moved to a consumption-based methodol-ogy (from ranking sales only) in Febru-ary 2017. It tops the 60,000 units accrued by Machine Gun Kelly‘s Tickets to My Downfall on the Oct. 10, 2020, survey.

Bryan’s 71,000-overall unit start is also the third-best for any release on Top Rock Albums in 2022, bested only by the bows of Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Unlimited Love (98,000 units, April 16) and Machine Gun Kelly’s Mainstream Sellout (93,000 units, April 9).

On Americana/Folk Albums, Heart-break claims the biggest week of the year

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in terms of units, surpassing The Lum-ineers‘ Brightside, which launched with 37,000 units (Jan. 29). It logs the top sum since Kacey Musgraves‘ Star-Crossed de-buted with 77,000 units (Sept. 25, 2021). As on Top Rock Albums, Heartbreak tallies the biggest frame in terms of streaming units since the chart moved to a consump-tion model in 2017, more than doubling the 30,000 first-week streaming units for Musgraves’ Star-Crossed.

Concurrently, 24 songs from Heart-break reach Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, giving Bryan the most simultaneous appear-ances in the chart’s 13-year history. He one-ups the 23 titles that Linkin Park placed on the Aug. 12, 2017, list, following the death of frontman Chester Bennington.

“Something in the Orange” leads all Heartbreak tracks on Hot Rock & Alter-native Songs, hitting a new No. 3 high, with 12.9 million official U.S. streams and 1,900 downloads sold. “Heavy Eyes” follows, de-buting at No. 12 (4.2 million streams).

Just A Gent Signs Global Administration Deal With Angry MobBY LARS BRANDLE

Australian electronic artist and producer Just A Gent is the latest addition to the Angry Mob Mu-sic Group roster, Billboard can

exclusively reveal.Hailing from Newcastle, New South

Wales, the electro music-maker (real name Jacob Grant) has been releasing music as Just A Gent since 2013, and has amassed more than 300 million streams with such cuts as “Limelight (NGHTMRE Remix),” “Rolling Dice,” “The Change (featuring DMA’S) [Remix],” “Iris in the Dark,” and others.

His 2016 cover of Kid Cudi’s “Day N Nite”

for triple j’s Like A Version series has gar-nered almost 3 million plays.

Over the years, he’s had nods from some of the top guns in electronic music, from Skrillex to Diplo, Dillon Francis, What So Not, and others, and dropped his debut full-length album project Planet Oasis in April, a set that features assists from Samsaruh, Sammi Constantine, Lani Rose, SAYAH, Jacknife, Greta Stanley, SADBOii, and Arno Faraji.

Feted by triple j, Planet Oasis weaves electronic arrangements with elements of hip-hop and, dance, and evolved over five years of recording sessions in Mindaribba on Wonnarua country (Maitland, NSW).

“We’re obviously thrilled for the opportu-nity to work with Just A Gent’s catalog, and equally excited to explore prospective col-laborations with Jacob as part of our admin+ music services offering,” notes Sean Har-rison, Angry Mob Music Group co-founder and creative director.

Angry Mob’s new signing, Harrison con-tinues, “is an exciting entrée into the EDM market as we look to expand and diversify our creative roster.”

Adds Marc Caruso, CEO of Angry Mob: “He is such a diverse artist and producer that continues to build upon each success, and we’re thrilled to support him and be a part of his next chapter.”

Based in Los Angeles, Angry Mob boasts nearly 300 publishing clients worldwide, administers over 6,000 songs, and has a stable of 60 creators, including Joe Pepe, Jake Scott, KiNG MALA, ROMES, Schmarx & Savvy, KAMI, Love-sadKiD, Pepper, LeyeT, Bus the Producer, Rune Westberg, Evan Coffman, and Verskotzi.

The independent music publisher was founded in 2009, and, today, is active in full-service music publishing, master rights management, creative development, and custom music production.

The team, enthuses Just A Gent, “is forward-thinking and willing to go above and beyond to help take my career to the next level.” A homecoming tour in support of Planet Oasis is slated to kick off June 24 at Sydney’s Manning Bar.

Gaby Moreno Promises ‘A Night of Healing’ at Benefit Concert for Uvalde VictimsBY GRISELDA FLORES 

When Gaby Moreno got a notification on her phone about the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting last week,

her first thought was: “Oh my God, here we go again.”

It’s a response many people had when news broke that a gunman had opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde — a small, predominantly Hispanic city West of San Antonio — killing 19 children and two teachers.

“I started seeing the number of people killed going higher and higher with 19 kids murdered, it’s just really heartbreaking,” says the Guatemalan singer-songwriter over a phone interview. “And then you start read-ing the stories about the families and these little kids that were just so beautiful. It’s absolutely devastating. I felt outraged like most people.”

Moreno is turning that outrage into action. Her upcoming show in L.A. on Satur-day (June 4), which was planned a celebra-tory show in honor of her recently released album Alegoría, has now turned into a trib-ute concert with 100% of the proceeds going toward the victims’ families. It’s a decision that was made jointly with her musicians and special guests Watkins Family Hour days after the tragedy.

“My friend David Garza, who will be performing with me that night, suggested it and I was like, absolutely yes, this is what we need to do,” she says, explaining that the money raised via ticket sales will be directly donated to the GoFundMe page set up for the families. “I knew I had to do something about it. I just couldn’t sit … My heart was breaking and it still is. I’m also thankful to

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all the musicians who will be part of this concert and they’re donating their time and fees.”

Furthermore, Moreno has also made a “pretty big” personal decision. After living in the U.S. for 20 years as a resident, she’s applying for citizenship. “My decision was directly related to what happened with this attack. I want to vote. I want to have a say. Enough is enough! I’ve lived in this country for way too long and what’s happening is now affecting all of us. In this case, directly affecting my Latino community.”

Saturday’s show will be a night of heal-ing, Moreno says. “We’re coming together to enjoy some music with friends, with our community knowing we’re doing it to help others. I’ll be playing a lot of songs from my new album, older songs, a big band on stage with horns. I’m really excited to share all this music and to have an uplifting evening.”

Moreno adds that artists should feel a sense of responsibility when it comes to tak-ing action and speaking up after events like this one. “You should feel grateful that you have your art and do really good things with it. But we should all be taking action. We should all be on our phones calling our rep-resentatives and demanding action. A lot of people are outraged the first week but then it dies down and we can’t let that happen. We need to keep putting pressure. That’s go-ing to be what really brings some change.”

Ticket purchases or donations can be made here.

Fewocious Breaks Down the ‘Love Story’ Behind His Billboard Logo Redesign For Pride MonthBY STEPHEN DAW 

While the NFT marketplace has seen a major spike in interest over the last year and a half, 19-year-old

Victor Langlois has known since long before then about the power of creating digital art.

“I feel like people who aren’t in the space usually think that everyone is drinking the same Kool-Aid — and I get it, because there is that aspect of it where these finance bros who are only interested in turning a profit show up,” he tells Billboard. “But when I found the NFT community, it was just this crazy art … because it’s a digital medium, you can do anything.” 

It’s that blue-sky approach that has made Fewocious, Langlois’ artistic pseud-onym, one of the hottest names in NFTs today. After making tens of millions in sales for their bright, colorful, inventive installa-tions over the past two years, Fewocious is now bringing his signature style to the cover of Billboard, by redesigning the cover and logo for our annual Pride issue.

The young transgender star says that when he was tasked with reimagining the cover featuring folk icon Brandi Carlile, he was immediately interested in looking at the assignment from the perspective of a child. “When I was a little kid, I would look at Billboard stuff all of the time,” he explains. “So I was thinking, ‘If I saw this, how would it impact me?” Especially with this Pride cover, it’s a really big deal to me.”

The result is a eye-popping phantasma-goria, with wild shapes shaded in rainbow filling the background, flowers adorning the bottom of the page, and small, intricate

doodles covering Carlile’s body, bringing the whimsical style of Fewocious’ work to the pages of Billboard.

One aspect of his concept, Langlois says, came from the lettering of Billboard’s logo. “In my brain, when you look at the ‘B’ and the ‘D,’ it almost looks like two different people looking at each other,” he says. “As you get to the center of the logo, it looks like they’re almost getting closer to each other, until eventually they’re holding hands. It’s a love story!”

Fewocious’ bright, colorful style of creation started when he was 13-years-old, making art from his childhood bedroom in Las Vegas, NV. Concerned that his “very conservative” parents and grandparents could find physical drawings he made with queer and trans themes as he began to question his own gender identity, Langlois started creating digital pieces that he could covertly stash away without his parents finding it.

“I was exploring who I was and who I liked, and I knew that through paper, I would have to find a folder and hide it really quick if my mom came into my room,” he explains. “But if I did it digitally, I could just close the tab and hide it in a digital folder that she would never be able to find.”

It wasn’t until Langlois was 17 and sold his first piece online that he realized he could have a future in this burgeoning mar-ket. Learning as much as he could, Langlois sold enough within a year to move out of his parents’ home, move to Seattle and begin creating a new narrative for himself. “I was really just sitting there like, ‘What do you mean, these people on the internet like me and don’t care about my orientation?’” he recalls. “‘They just accept me and my art? I have enough money to move out? I have enough money to get testosterone or top surgery? I have enough money to exist on my own?’ It was all very overwhelming.” 

In the years since, Fewocious has grown more ambitious with the work he creates —for example, FewoWorld, his new Web3 community collaboration, sees Langlois entering the world of “generative art,” in which he and his collaborators use coding to “teach” a program to create art. For his very first release of FewoWorld’s “paint

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drops” — a series of exclusive, moving pieces of generative art that serve as the “building blocks” of the online community — Fewocious worked with collaborator Lo-gan Gardner to use geometry nodes to help create “a little brain” that could generate its own music.

“I would play little synth noises that I thought could be replicated, and were malleable, and wouldn’t sound too terrible, and I gave them to him, saying, ‘This can be randomized up to three octaves,’” he explains with a laugh. “It was building out a brain that can say how much it can and cannot change the music and the visual, and it resulted in this really cool piece.”

It was a special collaboration since music has always been special for Langlois — drawing inspiration from a wide array of artists like Prince, David Bowie, Cage the Elephant, Missy Elliott and more, the artist says that he always looks for passion when it comes to what he listens to. “I feel like you can feel when they love it,” he says. “If a song comes on, and my heart gets that little jittery feeling when listening, then it will immediately be a new favorite of mine.”

With Pride Month 2022 officially upon us, Langlois hopes that queer and trans kids — who have been bearing the brunt of a series of anti-LGBTQ bills passing through state legislatures around the U.S. — can find the means to empower themselves through whatever they’re passionate about. When more people do that, he argues, it becomes easier for the next generation to step up.

“Growing up, there was almost no trans visibility for me to see, and I would get so frustrated, because I wanted to work so hard to do cool s–t so I could let someone else see what I was doing and feel that validation,” he says. “Maybe it’s not art — maybe you do fashion, maybe you do makeup, maybe its something else entirely — but be the person that you aren’t seeing enough of in the world. “

Post Malone’s ‘Cooped Up’ Flies Into Top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ChartBY TREVOR ANDERSON

Post Malone returns to the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with “Cooped Up,” featuring Roddy Ricch, in its

second week on the list. The single, released May 13 on Mercury/Republic Records, climbs 16-8 thanks to radio gains and the departure of several songs from Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers after their arrival last week.

For its first week in the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs’ top 10, “Cooped Up” registered 13.9 million official U.S. streams in the week ending May 26, according to Luminate, down 16% from 14.2 million the previous week. Sales, too, experienced a typical sec-ond-week slide and reduced 52% to 3,000 downloads for the same period. Despite the volume declines, “Cooped” advances 17-7 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart and remains at No. 4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales list.

Airplay results rise, however, as the single’s radio profile grows. “Cooped” zooms into the top 10 on Rhythmic Airplay in its third week with a 17-10 advance, spurred by a 29% increase in plays at U.S. monitored rhythmic radio stations in the week end-ing May 29. The track also debuts on Pop Airplay at No. 40 following a 25% improve-ment in weekly plays on mainstream top-40 stations.

“Cooped Up” previews Post Malone’s Twelve Carat Toothache album, which arrives Friday (June 3).

Back on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, “Cooped” also traces its rise to the departure of songs from Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers album after it bombarded the list. When “Cooped” debuted last week

at No. 16, Lamar placed 11 songs above the single. This week, nine of those tracks rank below “Cooped” and allow the song to fill the vacuum created.

The “Cooped” climb secures Post Malone’s 16th top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Here’s an updated look at his roster:

Song Title, Artist (if other than Post Malone), Peak Position, Peak Date

“White Iverson,” No. 5, Jan. 23, 2016“Congratulations,” featuring Quavo, No. 5,

July 1, 2017“Rockstar,” featuring 21 Savage, No. 1 (14

weeks), Oct. 28, 2017“I Fall Apart,” No. 9, Dec. 9, 2017“Psycho,” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, No. 1

(one week), June 16, 2018“Paranoid,” No. 7, May 12, 2018“Rich & Sad,” No. 9, May 12, 2018“Spoil My Night,” No. 10, May 12, 2018“Better Now,” No. 2, Oct. 16, 2018“Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-

Verse),” with Swae Lee, No. 1 (11 weeks), Jan. 12, 2019

“Wow.,” No. 1 (one week), April 6, 2019“Goodbyes,” featuring Young Thug, No. 2,

July 20, 2019“Enemies,” featuring DaBaby, No. 9, Sept.

21, 2019“Saint-Tropez,” No. 10, Sept. 21, 2019“Motley Crew,” No. 3, July 24, 2021“Cooped Up,” featuring Roddy Ricch, No.

8 (to date), June 4, 2022For featured artist Roddy Ricch, “Cooped”

is his sixth top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It joins three previous successes in lead roles: “Ballin’” with Mustard (No. 4), “The Box” (No. 1 for 12 weeks) and “Late at Night” (No. 6), and guest spots on DaBaby’s “Rockstar” (nine weeks at No. 1) and Pop Smoke’s “The Woo” (No. 9).

Elsewhere, “Cooped” scales 14-7 on Hot Rap Songs, but retreats 29-43 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. Similar to the Lamar situation last week, 12 new entries from Harry Styles’ Harry’s House album fac-tor into the track’s placement on the latter chart.

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Event & Arena Marketing Conference Awards Return to Honor SoFi Stadium’s Vanessa KromerBY DAVE BROOKS 

The Event & Arena Marketing Conference is returning after a two-year pandemic pause.

This year, EAMC will hon-or Vanessa Kromer from SoFi Stadium with its top honor — the 2022 Gigi Award of Excellence — named after the late Gigi Pilhofer, one of the conference’s founders. Kromer is the former EAMC president and a Hall of Famer currently serving as senior di-rector of publicity at SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater and Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., and has actively contributed to the conference for more than 20 years. Kromer previously worked at Nederlander Concerts in Los Angeles. During her tenure at EAMC, she has hosted conferences in Anaheim (1999) and Los Angeles (2015), served as the president and v.p. of agenda, served as a board member, and created the EAMC Awards.

Kosha Irby from Professional Bull Riders and Rosanne Kozerski Brown, formerly with the Detroit Red Wings will also be inducted into the EAMC Hall of Fame this year. Irby is being recognized for his impact on the live entertainment industry, support for the conference, and influence in market-ing trends. Irby currently serves as chief marketing officer for Professional Bull Rid-ers, where he is responsible for all aspects of PBR’s consumer and live event marketing. A longtime supporter of the annual confer-ence, Irby has participated in several panel discussions and sponsored events through PBR and his former company WWE. Koz-

erski Brown has been a participant in the earliest years of the conference and is the 2020 EAMC Hall of Fame recipient. Begin-ning in the mid-1970s, Kozerski Brown was a rising star in a relatively new profession — event and sports marketing — serving as director of public relations and marketing at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Her career took her on a yearlong tour with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Australia and Japan, before ultimately becoming v.p. of public relations and marketing for the Detroit Red Wings.

Also honored this year are Kelly Lovell-Taylor, marketing and PR officer for the Tempe Center for the Arts, who will receive the 2022 Impact Award for her positive influence and contributions within the community. She is currently v.p. and a founding member of the City of Tempe’s Black Employee Alliance. TBEA helps con-nect, influence, empower and strengthen the relationships of Black employees with each other and city staff at large, with the goal of fostering inclusion. She has also been involved with EAMC for more than 25 years as an attendee, panelist and a sponsor representative.

This year, EAMC will also announce the winners for Marketing and Publicity Cam-paigns of the Year, Best Artist Gift and Artist Welcome of the Year during the annual EAMC Awards Luncheon in Minneapolis held on Thursday, June 16.

The nominees for this year’s award are below. Learn more at eventarenamarket-ing.com.

Marketing and Publicity Campaigns of the Year are (under $10,000)

2022 World Women’s Curling Champi-onship at the CN Centre in Prince George, British Columbia

Hitched at Honda Center in Anaheim, California

Rolling Stones Lips Ice Sculpture Tease at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis

Marketing & Publicity Campaign Of The Year (More than $10,000)

Intermission is Over – Cirque du SoleilGolden 1 Center Turn Up 5 Year Cam-

paign – Golden 1 Center, SacramentoJimmy Kimmel LA Bowl Presented By

Stifel – SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park

Most Creative Artist WelcomeDallas <3’s Miranda at American Airlines

Center, DallasWelcome Home Machine Gun Kelly by

the Cleveland Cavaliers and Rocket Mort-gage FieldHouse

Jason Aldean Welcome at Paycom Center, Oklahoma City

Most Creative Artist Gift (under $1,000)Custom neon “Free Spirit” sign for Khalid

from American Airlines, DallasCustom IPA “Pop a Top” from local

brewery with individualized Yeti Cooler for Alan Jackson from BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Flip-flop boot sandals for Kenny Chesney from Paycom Center, Oklahoma City

Most Creative Artist Gift ($1,000+)A 40-lb cheese replica of Carrie Under-

wood by Fiserv Forum, MilwaukeeVelvet jacket for Post Malone at Golden 1

CenterOne-of-a-kind stilettos Celine Dion from

Scotiabank Arena, Toronto

Ozuna’s ‘Deprimida’ Tops Latin Airplay ChartBY PAMELA BUSTIOS

Ozuna collects his 28th No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Air-play chart as “Deprimida” lifts 7-1 on the June 4-dated rank-

ing. The song ascends from No. 7 in its 13th week thanks to a 50% increase in audience impressions earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 29, according to Luminate.

The 50% gain, which equates to 9.9 mil-lion in audience impressions, earns “Dep-rimida” the Greatest Gainer honors of the week, and sends Becky G and Karol G’s “Mamiii” to No. 2 after its second noncon-secutive week up top.

“Deprimida’s” top three stations, by audience, in the tracking week were in New York: WSKQ leads with 155,000 in audience

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impressions, followed by WXNY (827,000) and WPAT (595,000).

With 28 leaders on his Latin Airplay ac-count, Ozuna extends his third-most rank-ing among all acts since the chart launched in 1994, standing only behind J Balvin’s 35 No. 1s and Enrique Iglesias’ 32 leaders.

Here’s the recap of the scoreboard mainly dominated by Latin rhythmic acts:

35, J Balvin 32, Enrique Iglesias 28, Ozuna 25, Daddy Yankee 21, Maluma 20, Wisin 19, Romeo Santos

“Deprimida” is the first single from Ozuna’s upcoming sixth studio album Ozu-tuchi. He has placed a total of five studio sets on Top Latin Albums, all which have debuted in the penthouse, dating back to his 46-week champ Odisea in 2017.

Beyond its victory on Latin Airplay, “Dep-rimida” concurrently ascends 4-1 on Latin Rhythm Airplay. It gifts Ozuna his 27th leader there, also the third-most trailing J Balvin’s 34 No. 1s and Daddy Yankee’s 32.

Thanks to is radio push, the song re-enters at No. 43 on the all-metric Hot Latin Songs chart (previously a No. 34 peak in March 12-dated recap).

The Strokes Cancel Primavera Sound Headlining Set Due to COVID-19: ‘We Deeply Apologize’BY STARR BOWENBANK 

The Strokes has canceled yet another show this year due to COVID-19. On Thursday (June 2), the band issued a statement

via Instagram Story, telling fans that they are unable to perform their headlining set

for Primavera Sound on June 3 because of COVID-19.

“Due to the ongoing COVID situation in which we’ve had to cancel two shows already, we tried – but unfortunately need to cancel tomorrow night’s set at Primavera Sound,” the group wrote. “The band is com-mitted to returning full force in Stolkholm and playing next weekend in Barcelona. We deeply apologize.”

Primavera also addressed the issue in statements posted to the festival’s social media pages, explaining the situation to fans and attendees.

“We have tried everything. We wanted The Strokes to be at Primavera Sound Bar-celona this weekend but you can’t always get what you want,” the English translation of the statement said. “Since we heard about the cancellation of the band’s concert in Boston on May 28, we have been in contact with the band to see how the festival could help make their concert happen. In fact, the band is already in Barcelona, with the exception of one of its members, who can’t travel due to health reasons.”

The cancellation comes on the heels of The Strokes having to nix their headlin-ing performance at Boston Calling after learning there was a positive case of CO-VID-19 amongst the group. Nine Inch Nails filled their vacated spot at the festival for Saturday (May 28), in addition to perform-ing their own Friday headline slot, which they filled after Foo Fighters pulled out following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. The Strokes also postponed a May 30 concert in support of Kira Collins, a democratic candidate running for election in Illinois’ seventh congressional district.

Primavera’s statement revealed that Caribou will be taking The Strokes’ place in the festival lineup, while Mogwai will take Caribou’s original slot. Fans who purchased a ticket for June 3 will be allowed to attend on June 10, when The Strokes are antici-pated to return to the festival.

Halestorm’s ‘The Steeple’ Stands Highest on Mainstream Rock Airplay ChartBY KEVIN RUTHERFORD

Halestorm strings together its second straight No. 1 on Bill-board‘s Mainstream Rock Air-play chart with “The Steeple,”

which climbs to the top of the June 4-dated survey.

The song is the Lzzy Hale-led band’s fifth ruler overall, a run that began with “Freak Like Me” in April 2013. The group’s latest follows the one-week reign of “Back From the Dead” in November.

Halestorm boasts the second-most lead-ers by a woman-fronted act in the Main-stream Rock Airplay chart’s 41-year history, after The Pretty Reckless (seven).

Concurrently, “Steeple” lifts 11-8 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 2.7 million audience impressions, up 4%, according to Luminate. Halestorm claims its second top 10 and best rank yet on the survey, exceed-ing “Dead,” which hit No. 9.

“Steeple” also jumps 18-14 on the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, after reaching No. 13 in May. In addition to its ra-dio airplay, the song earned 237,000 official U.S. streams in the latest tracking week.

“Steeple” is the second single from Back From the Dead, Halestorm’s fifth studio album. The set debuted at No. 2 on the Top Hard Rock Albums list dated May 21 and has earned 30,000 equivalent album units to date.

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Needle Attacks at Concerts, Clubs Puzzle European AuthoritiesBY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Across France, more than 300 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with nee-dles at nightclubs or concerts

in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who’s doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugs — or indeed any substance at all.

Club owners and police are trying to raise awareness, and a rapper even interrupted his recent show to warn concert-goers about the risk of surprise needle attacks.

It’s not just France: Britain’s government is studying a spate of “needle spiking” there, and police in Belgium and the Netherlands are investigating scattered cases too.

On May 4, 18-year-old Tomas Laux at-tended a rap concert in Lille in northern France, where he smoked a bit of marijuana and drank some alcohol during the show. When he came home, he told The Associ-ated Press, he was feeling dizzy and had a headache – and he spotted a strange little skin puncture on his arm and a bruise.

The next morning, the symptoms didn’t disappear and Laux went to his doctor, who advised him to go to the emergency room. Medics confirmed evidence of a needle prick, and Laux was tested for HIV and hepatitis. His results came out negative, like other victims’ so far.

“I’ve given up going to concerts since it happened,” Laux said.

Hundreds of kilometers (miles) away, Le-anne Desnos recounted a similar experience after going to a club in the southwest city of Bordeaux in April. Desnos, also 18, passed out the next day, and felt dizzy and had hot flashes while at a fast food restaurant. When she got home, she realized she had an injec-tion mark on her arm. After having seen

testimony on social media about the mystery pricks, she went to a clinic to get tested for infections. She is still awaiting results.

People from Paris, Toulouse, Nantes, Nancy, Rennes, and other cities around France have reported being pricked with a needle without their knowledge or permis-sion. The targeted individuals, who are mostly women, show visible marks of injec-tion, often bruises, and report symptoms like feeling groggy.

France’s national police agency says 302 people have filed formal complaints about such needle pricks. Several police investiga-tions are ongoing in different regions, but no suspect has been arrested yet, no needle has been found and the motive remains unclear.

No victims have reported sexual assault; one said he was robbed, in Grenoble in April, according to Le Monde newspaper.

Two people tested positive for GHB, and they might have ingested the drug in a drink, according to an official with the national police agency. GHB, a powerful anesthetic used by predators seeking to sexually abuse or assault victims, can be detected in the urine only for 12 hours, the police official said.

The official and a doctor who is taking a leading role in dealing with the phenom-enon expressed doubt that the nightclub pricks contained GHB, noting that to penetrate via needle, the drug needs to be injected for several seconds, which most victims would notice.

“We didn’t find any drugs or substances or objective proof which attest to … admin-istration of a substance with wrongful or criminal intent. What we fear the most is people contracting HIV, hepatitis or any infectious disease” from the jabs, said Dr. Emmanuel Puskarczyk, head of the poison control center of the eastern French city of Nancy.

In the Nancy hospital, a special proce-dure has been created to optimize care of victims. Patients who show symptoms like grogginess are treated, and blood and urine samples are kept for five days in case any want to press charges.

“Each case is different. We see injection marks, but some people don’t have symptoms. When potential victims have symptoms like

discomfort or black holes (in their memory), they are not specific,” Puskarczyk said.

The police official, who was not autho-rized to be publicly named according to national police policy, said: “At this stage, we can’t talk about a specific modus operandi. There aren’t any similarities between the cases. The only thing similar is that people are being injected with a needle in a festive context in different places in France.”

With club-goers expressing fear on social networks and media coverage fueling anxi-ety, the French Interior Ministry launched a national awareness campaign this month. Police are handing out leaflets to clubbers and discussing prevention measures with club owners.

In the U.K., Parliament issued a report in April on drink and needle spiking in pubs and nightclubs after a sudden surge in such incidents last year. It said police reported about 1,000 cases of needle injection across the country around October 2021, when droves of students returned to campuses after coronavirus restrictions eased.

However, the parliament report said there was a lack of data to judge how serious the issue is. It’s not clear whether anyone has been prosecuted for needle spiking, or how many victims were injected with a drug or other substance.

“No-one knows how prevalent spiking is, whether by drink, drug or needle, and no-one knows what causes perpetrators to do it. Anecdotal evidence suggests the practice is widespread and dangerous,” it said.

A series of similar incidents involving people pricked with needles at nightclubs, a soccer game and during the Belgian Pride parade have been reported in neighboring Belgium. Last month, the Brussels pros-ecutor’s office opened two investigations following complaints from women who said they were jabbed during the pride parade in downtown Brussels. Organizers of the march said in a statement they were in-formed of several cases and urged potential victims to get checked at hospitals.

Back in France, as investigations continue with no perpetrators found, rapper Dinos interrupted his concert in Strasbourg this week to warn his fans about the risks, and insisted: “This has to stop.”

IN BRIEF

Page 27 of 31

Harry Styles’ ‘Music For a Sushi Restaurant’ Soundtracks AirPods Spatial Audio AdBY GIL KAUFMAN 

Harry Styles‘ “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” is the soundtrack for a new ad for Apple’s Air-Pods with Spatial Audio that

dropped on Thursday (June 2). The playful spot cued to the jazzy opening track from Styles’ new album, Harry’s House, is a bit of a throwback to some of the classic 2003 Apple “Silhouettes” ads of yore, featuring pink, red and blue dancers grooving to the bass-slapping tune along with Styles scat-ting along as his color-blocked body cycles through a variety of eye-popping hues.

Styles requested that Apple donate his artist fee for appearing in the commercial to the International Rescue Commit-tee (IRC). “From all of us at the IRC: Thank you to @HarryStyles and @Apple for your generous donation to the IRC,” said the organization that helps people around the world suffering through humanitarian crises in a tweet. “Working in more than 40 coun-tries, your support will help us reach even more refugees and people in need in the world’s toughest places. Honored to have your support!”

The campaign — which will appear on TV, TVO, YouTube pre-rolls and in retail stores across the country — promotes the immer-sive audio experience on the 3rd genera-tion of AirPods, which incorporate Apple’s Spatial Audio dynamic head tracking tech that makes the user feel like they are being enveloped by sound.

Styles jumped from No. 10 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated June 4), returning as the top musical act in the U.S. for a third total week, and for the

first time since December 2019, thanks to the massive first-week success of his new LP, Harry’s House.

The singer’s third solo album rocketed in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 521,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate; it’s the biggest weekly total for an album this year, surpassing the opening tally of Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers a week earlier (295,500 units). Har-ry’s House is just the fourth album in the last 18 months to earn at least 500,000 units in a single week and logs the biggest total since Adele’s 30 debuted with 839,000 units on the chart dated Dec. 4, 2021.

In addition to donating his fee for the Apple spot to IRC, Styles recently an-nounced that in response to two devastating mass shootings in the U.S. in less than two weeks, his upcoming North American tour will partner with the nonprofit Everytown For Gun Safety to donate proceeds from the tour, with Live Nation matching, equal-ing over $1 million to Everytown’s Support Fund.

Hey! Say! JUMP’s ‘a r e a’ Debuts at No. 1 on Japan Hot 100BY BILLBOARD JAPAN 

Hey! Say! JUMP’s “a r e a” blasts into No. 1 on this week’s Bill-board Japan Hot 100, ruling physical sales with 232,265 cop-

ies sold in its first week.On the chart unveiled June 1, the title

track off the eight-member boy band’s first triple-A CD single hit No. 1 for sales and look-ups, debuting at the top of the song chart fueled by these two physical metrics of the chart’s measurement. The song is at No. 16 for Twitter, but didn’t enter the top 100 for radio airplay. The Johnny’s group’s previous single, “Sing-along,” launched with 200,355 copies, so sales have increased by about 30,000 copies this time around.

Kenshi Yonezu’s “M87” slips 1-2 on this week’s Japan Hot 100, but continues to show strength in downloads with 19,726 units (No. 2), riding high on the popularity of the movie it’s featured in, Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno’s Shin Ultraman. Sales are understandably down from the first week, but the track is at No. 5 for streaming (6,180,534 weekly streams), No. 2 for video views, and No. 3 for radio.

SEKAI NO OWARI’s “Habit” rises a notch to No. 5 this week, breaking its own record in the digital realm by hitting No. 1 for video and No. 3 for streaming. The steady increase in overall points shows that the TikTok fa-vorite is attracting new listeners outside the four-member band’s — known as End of the World outside of Japan — core fanbase, and if this momentum can be maintained until the CD version drops on June 22, the track has a chance to climb farther up the tally.

“Jidai okure no Rock’n’Roll Band” is a charity song by five prominent Japanese art-ists: Keisuke Kuwata, Motoharu Sano, Ma-sanori Sera, Char, and Goro Noguchi. These 66-year-old veteran musicians got together a la the Traveling Wilburys and wrote the song together based on a demo by Kuwata.

The heartfelt number with a title that means “the outdated rock ’n’ roll band” bowed at No. 9 on the Japan Hot 100 after launching at No. 1 for downloads with 20,473 units. It also topped radio, and still has room for growth in other metrics such as video (No. 33) and Twitter mentions (No. 54). A portion of the proceeds from this song will be donated to Save the Children to protect the future and lives of kids around the world facing depression and challenges due to COVID-19, natural disasters,A charity song by five prominent 66-year-old rockers bows at No. 9. and war.

The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups and karaoke data.

See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from May 23 to 29, here.

IN BRIEF

Page 28 of 31

A WEEKLY NATIONAL MUSIC CONSUMPTION REPORTMarket Watch

W E E K LY U N I T C O U N T

A L B U M C O N S U M PT I O N U N I TS BY FO R M AT

Y E A R TO DAT E

Album consumption units — also known as albums plus TEA plus SEA — consists of album sales; track-equivalent album (TEA) sales whereby 10 tracks equal one consumption unit; and stream equivalent albums (SEA) whereby 1,250 paid and/or 3,750 ad-supported audio on-demand streams (OAD) equal one consumption unit.

Source:

60m

55m

50m

45m

40m

35m

30m

25m

20m

15m

10m

5m

0

2022 2021 Change

CD Sales 13,340,000 15,117,000 -11.8%

Vinyl Sales 15,577,000 14,894,000 4.6%

Digital Sales 8,491,000 10,524,000 -19.3%

Other Sales 204,000 166,000 23.2%

Track Equivalent 6,475,000 8,137,000 -20.4%

Audio On-Demand Equivalent 319,839,000 282,841,000 13.1%

2022 2021 Change

Total On-Demand Streams 499,205,791,000 447,356,759,000 11.6%

Audio On-Demand Streams 437,673,049,000 388,618,934,000 12.6%

Digital Track Sales 64,748,000 81,365,000 -20.4%

Album Sales 37,612,000 40,700,000 -7.6%

Albums Consumption Units 363,926,000 331,677,000 9.7%

*All data measures U.S. activity as of the week ending May 26, 2022. All units counts are rounded to the nearest thousand.

TotalStreams

AudioOn-Demand

VideoOn-Demand

AlbumSales

DigitalAlbum Sales

DigitalTracks

Albums Consumption Units

ThisWeek* 24,543,314,000 21,554,233,000 2,989,082,000 1,936,000 387,000 3,032,000 18,009,000

LastWeek 24,664,127,000 21,645,568,000 3,018,559,000 1,765,000 418,000 3,036,000 17,887,000

Change -0.5% -0.4% -1.0% 9.7% -7.3% -0.1% 0.7%

This Week Last Year 22,307,505,000 19,441,201,000 2,866,305,000 1,982,000 519,000 4,160,000 16,597,000

Change 10.0% 10.9% 4.3% -2.3% -25.4% -27.1% 8.5%

Y E A R TO DAT E T R AC K SA L ES BY AG E

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58,4

94,0

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17,3

11,0

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22,8

71,0

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-18.9% -24.3%

1 #1 1 WK HARRY STYLES

2 KID HARPOON 3 TYLER JOHNSON 4 BAD BUNNY 5 MAG 6 LA PACIENCIA 7 DAVE BAYLEY 8 ATL JACOB 9 FUTURE 10 TAINY 11 ZACH BRYAN 12 ED SHEERAN 13 KENDRICK LAMAR 14 MORGAN WALLEN 15 CHARLIE HANDSOME 16 SOUNWAVE 17 ERNEST

TIE 18 FINATIK TIE 18 ISAAC DEBONI

20 MITCH ROWLAND 21 ASHLEY GORLEY 22 LIL BABY 23 JOHNNY MCDAID 24 SAM DEW 25 SAMMY WITTE

HOT 100 SONGWRITERSTMTIE 1 #1

1 WK KID HARPOON TIE 1 #1

1 WK TYLER JOHNSON 3 MAG 4 ATL JACOB 5 JOEY MOI 6 TAINY 7 OVY ON THE DRUMS 8 DAVE BAYLEY 9 FNZ 10 SOUNWAVE 11 BLAKE SLATKIN 12 MATTMAN & ROBIN 13 CHARLIE HANDSOME 14 RICKY REED 15 LOUIS BELL 16 GREG KURSTIN 17 EVAN BLAIR 18 DR. LUKE 19 RYAN HADLOCK 20 MICHAEL KNOX 21 TRENT WILLMON 22 DAVID FANNING 23 DANN HUFF 24 JAHAAN SWEET 25 VAUGHN OLIVER

HOT 100 PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 4 WK S ZACH BRYAN

2 MORGAN WALLEN 3 ERNEST 4 ASHLEY GORLEY 5 CHARLIE HANDSOME 6 MIRANDA LAMBERT 7 JESSE FRASURE

TIE 8 BEN MERRITT STENNIS TIE 8 MATT ROGERS

10 BEN JOHNSON

COUNTRY SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

69 WK S JOEY MOI 2 DAVID FANNING 3 RYAN HADLOCK 4 EDDIE SPEAR 5 MICHAEL KNOX 6 TRENT WILLMON 7 DANN HUFF 8 AUSTIN RAKESH SHAWN 9 JACOB DURRETT 10 CHARLIE HANDSOME

COUNTRY PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 5 WK S FUTURE

2 KENDRICK LAMAR 3 ATL JACOB 4 SOUNWAVE 5 SAM DEW 6 TEMS 7 LIL BABY 8 DRAKE

TIE 9 FINATIK TIE 9 ISAAC DEBONI

R&B/HIP-HOP SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

16 WK S ATL JACOB 2 SOUNWAVE 3 FNZ 4 DR. LUKE 5 JAHAAN SWEET

TIE 6 BLAKE SLATKIN TIE 6 RICKY REED

8 BOI-1DA 9 VAUGHN OLIVER 10 ROGET CHAHAYED

R&B/HIP-HOP PRODUCERSTM

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The top songwriters and producers on the Billboard Hot 100 and selective genre songs chart that utilize the Hot 100 formula (blending streaming, airplay and download sales data) for the charts dated June 4, 2022. Rankings are based on accumulated weekly points for all charted songs — on the specified chart for the week — on which a songwriter or producer is credited. If a song is written or produced by more than one person, points are divided equally among all credited parties.

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TIE 2 BLAKE SLATKIN TIE 2 LARRY PRICE TIE 2 LIZZO TIE 2 MALCOLM MCLAREN TIE 2 RICKY REED TIE 2 RONALD LARKINS TIE 2 STEPHEN HAGUE TIE 2 THERON THOMAS TIE 10 ELLA MAI TIE 10 MUSTARD

R&B SONGWRITERSTMTIE 1 #1

3 WK S BLAKE SLATKIN TIE 1 #1

18 WK S RICKY REED 3 D’MILE 4 MIKE WOODS 5 SHIZZI 6 TEMS 7 MUSTARD

TIE 8 FORTHENIGHT TIE 8 SONNI

10 THE WEEKND

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1 #1 1 WK FLUME

TIE 2 BERNIE TAUPIN TIE 2 ELTON JOHN TIE 2 NICK LITTLEMORE TIE 2 PETER MAYES TIE 2 SAM LITTLEMORE

7 FARRUKO 8 DXRK

TIE 9 AVA MAX TIE 9 CLAUDIA VALENTINA TIE 9 PABLO BOWMAN TIE 9 PETER RYCROFT TIE 9 TIESTO

DANCE/ELECTRONIC SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

1 WK FLUME 2 ALESSO

TIE 3 LOSTBOY TIE 3 TIESTO TIE 5 CHRIS THOMAS TIE 5 GUS DUDGEON TIE 5 NICK LITTLEMORE TIE 5 PETER MAYES TIE 5 SAM LITTLEMORE

10 LOST FREQUENCIES

DANCE/ELECTRONIC PRODUCERSTM

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1 #1 1 WK ZACH BRYAN

2 DAVE BAYLEY 3 STEPHEN SANCHEZ 4 NICKY YOURE 5 BOYWITHUKE

TIE 6 DAVE PITTENGER TIE 6 GAYLE TIE 6 SARA DAVIS TIE 9 ELLE KING TIE 9 MARTIN JOHNSON

ROCK & ALTERNATIVE SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

1 WK EDDIE SPEAR 2 MATTMAN & ROBIN 3 DAVE BAYLEY 4 RYAN HADLOCK 5 PETE NAPPI 6 BOYWITHUKE 7 FINNEAS 8 DAZY

TIE 9 BRANDON PADDOCK TIE 9 MARTIN JOHNSON

ROCK & ALTERNATIVE PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 68 WK S BAD BUNNY

2 MAG 3 LA PACIENCIA 4 TAINY

TIE 5 KAROL G TIE 5 OVY ON THE DRUMS

7 ELENA ROSE TIE 8 MICK COOGAN TIE 8 SCOTT DITTRICH

10 BYRD

LATIN SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

5 WK S MAG 2 TAINY 3 OVY ON THE DRUMS 4 SUBELO NEO 5 ALBERT HYPE

TIE 6 MICK COOGAN TIE 6 SCOTT DITTRICH

8 JOTA ROSA 9 JIMMY HUMILDE 10 BYRD

LATIN PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 5 WK S FUTURE

2 KENDRICK LAMAR 3 ATL JACOB 4 SOUNWAVE 5 DRAKE 6 SAM DEW

TIE 7 FINATIK TIE 7 ISAAC DEBONI

9 LIL BABY 10 JAHAAN SWEET

RAP SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

18 WK S ATL JACOB 2 FNZ 3 SOUNWAVE 4 DR. LUKE 5 JAHAAN SWEET 6 VAUGHN OLIVER 7 BOI-1DA 8 PARKED UP

TIE 9 JACK HARLOW TIE 9 JASPER HARRIS TIE 9 ROGET CHAHAYED

RAP PRODUCERSTM

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1 #1 56 WK S DAVE BAYLEY

2 BOYWITHUKE 3 NICKY YOURE

TIE 4 DAVE PITTENGER TIE 4 GAYLE TIE 4 SARA DAVIS TIE 7 BEN MCKEE TIE 7 DAN REYNOLDS TIE 7 DANIEL PLATZMAN TIE 7 MATTIAS LARSSON TIE 7 ROBIN FREDRIKSSON TIE 7 WAYNE SERMON

ALTERNATIVE SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

6 WK S MATTMAN & ROBIN 2 DAVE BAYLEY 3 PETE NAPPI 4 BOYWITHUKE 5 FINNEAS 6 DAZY

TIE 7 CHARLES EKHAUS TIE 7 THE WALTERS

9 JULES NIALT 10 THE BLACK KEYS

ALTERNATIVE PRODUCERSTM

TIE 1 #1 1 WK IVAN MOODY

TIE 1 #1 2 WK S KEVIN CHURKO

TIE 1 #1 1 WK ZOLTAN BATHORY

TIE 4 ASA WELCH TIE 4 ELLEY DUHE TIE 4 ROMANS

7 WZRD BLD 8 SCOTT STEVENS 9 MATT BELLAMY

TIE 10 A GHOUL WRITER TIE 10 FAT MAX GSUS

HARD ROCK SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

1 WK JULIAN COMEAU 2 HOWARD BENSON 3 SCOTT STEVENS

TIE 4 FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH TIE 4 KEVIN CHURKO

6 TAYLOR KIMBALL 7 WZRD BLD 8 E-BASS

TIE 9 RONNIE RADKE TIE 9 TYLER SMYTH

HARD ROCK PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 17 WK S JEFF PARDO

2 MATTHEW WEST 3 COLBY WEDGEWORTH 4 BEN GLOVER 5 ETHAN HULSE

TIE 6 BLESSING OFFOR TIE 6 SAM ELLIS

8 ANNE WILSON 9 DAVID SPENCER 10 JEFF SOJKA

CHRISTIAN SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

13 WK S JEFF PARDO 2 COLBY WEDGEWORTH 3 JONATHAN SMITH 4 TEDD T 5 SAM ELLIS 6 AJ PRUIS 7 PAUL MOAK 8 JEFF SOJKA 9 KYLE WILLIAMS 10 BEN GLOVER

CHRISTIAN PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 4 WK S CHANDLER MOORE

TIE 2 CHRIS BROWN TIE 2 NAOMI RAINE TIE 2 STEVEN FURTICK

5 KANYE WEST TIE 6 OJIVOLTA TIE 6 RAUL CUBINA

8 JEKALYN CARR 9 JAHMAL GWIN 10 DJ KHALIL

GOSPEL SONGWRITERSTMTIE 1 #1

11 WK S JONATHAN JAY TIE 1 #1

10 WK S TONY BROWN 3 KANYE WEST 4 BRYAN FOWLER 5 OJIVOLTA 6 BOOGZDABEAST 7 MIKE DEAN 8 DJ KHALIL 9 30ROC 10 ALLEN CARR

GOSPEL PRODUCERSTM

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