Last week, Spotify was on the receiving end of a scolding from several members of Congress. “We believe that one of your new music promotion pro-grams, Discovery Mode, is another troubling move by your company that sacrifices honesty in the name of profit,” Representatives Yvette D. Clarke, Judy Chu, and Tony Cardenas wrote. The letter went on to say that the implications of Discovery Mode were “especially serious” “for artists of diverse back-grounds,” and that the program “preys on unwitting consumers” who aren’t aware that they are listening to a particular song because an artist effectively paid Spotify — by offering their music at a discounted royalty rate — to play it to them.

The government’s concern stood in stark contrast to the mostly rave reviews of this “new music promotion program” from 10 managers or indie label heads who have tested it and agreed to speak about their experi-ences last week on the condition of anonymity.

“If Spotify’s mission is to prevent gatekeepers from stopping good music from making it to the top, Discovery Mode is definitely doing that,” says one manager. “We first started using it a year ago and saw incredible results,” adds an indie-label head. And

one particularly effusive manager of a pop act called Discovery Mode “a brilliant tool, amazing for market-ing music.”

It was notable that the managers who spoke for this story were almost uniformly unaware that Con-gress had Discovery Mode in its sights. Instead, they were gushing over being able to juice their artists’ streams as much as 200% to 300%.

The dissonance between the government’s appre-hension and managers’ enthusiasm has been nearly constant during the brief and tumultuous life of this Spotify program. The streaming service announced Discovery Mode towards the end of 2020. If artists elect to participate in the program, their music enjoys higher priority in Spotify’s algorithm, which services music to passive listening initiatives like Spotify Radio and autoplay. The catch? Artists receive lower royal-ties on plays that come through this extra algorithmic exposure, and a fair number of artists are pretty un-happy about Spotify’s low royalty rates already.

“If People Are Getting Boosted, You Have to Compete”

Discovery Mode was immediately tagged as modern

Politicians Hate Spotify’s Discovery Mode. Managers Love It — For Now

B Y E L I A S L E I G H T

(continued)

YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE

BulletinA P R I L 1 4 , 2 0 2 2 Page 1 of 26

• With European Tours in the Balance, UK Suspends Post-

Brexit Rules for Music Truckers

• On the Road to Coachella? Those

Billboards Are There Just for You

• Scooter Braun Says The Kid LAROI

Diss Was a Promo Stunt: ‘Don’t Believe Everything You See’

• Surprise! Arcade Fire Is Performing at

Coachella

• Coachella Set Times Are Here

INSIDE

MARKET WATCHPAGE 23

SONGWRITERS & PRODUCERS

CHARTSPAGES 24 - 26

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Page 3 of 26

payola — by both its detractors and its supporters. (Streaming services are not regulated like the airwaves, where undis-closed payola is prohibited.) The Artists Rights Alliance decried “Spotify’s cynical decision to use this moment to launch a new pay-for-play scheme pressuring vulnerable artists and smaller labels to accept lower royalties in exchange for a boost on the company’s algorithms,” calling the initiative “exploitative and unfair.” In June, members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Spotify, concerned that Discovery Mode would “set in motion a ‘race to the bottom’ in which artists and labels feel compelled to accept lower royalties as a necessary way to break through an extremely crowded and competitive music environment.”

But others argued that “streaming payola” would be beneficial for those same “vulnerable artists,” replacing “a closed and secret system where the major record labels control access to audiences” with “a lottery for low-priced tickets to success.” In response to last week’s letter from Congress, Spotify said in a statement that “artist and label teams have told [us] for years that they want more agency in reaching new listen-ers and driving meaningful connections on our platform — Discovery Mode, in its early phase, delivers just that.”

The worries expressed by members of Congress and the Artists Rights Alliance, among others, stem in part from the belief

that, once payola-like behavior becomes an option in a brutally competitive envi-ronment where everyone is looking for an edge, everyone is incentivized to participate — even if that widespread participation ultimately blunts any edge.

In the world of radio, for example, “overall, labels would be better if everyone cooperates” and refuses to pay for airplay, explains Gabriel Rossman, an associate professor at UCLA who has studied payola. “But at any given time, no matter what you’re doing, I have the incentive to pay. If you’re not paying a bribe and I am, then I get all the airplay. And if you’re paying bribes and I also pay a bribe, then at least I get some airplay.” The end result, accord-ing to Rossman, is that competitors bid up the price of radio spins to the point where it cancels out the promotional value of airplay.

Even some of the managers and label-heads who object to Discovery Mode have started to use it, which offers potential support for the “race to the bottom” theory. “I was advocating from the beginning that they shouldn’t do this at all — you’re poking a hole in a dam,” says one indie label leader. “But if people are getting boosted, you have to compete in that environment,” so he’s testing Discovery Mode for his acts. “It makes me uncomfortable,” he says.

“You’re Getting Streams You Other-wise Wouldn’t Have Gotten”

The gulf between managers on the one

hand and music industry advocacy organi-zations and regulators on the other can be explained in part by their focus. The former see their job as helping their artists rise above the competition by any means neces-sary, and Discovery Mode is another tool in their arsenal; they are tending to just a few trees. The Artists Rights Alliance is looking at the impact on the whole industry, trying to figure out what will happen to the forest. “Some managers are taking advantage of the small number of users and seeing positive results,” says one industry veteran who is staunchly anti-Discovery Mode. “This was bound to happen because managers com-mission all revenue streams and can use Spotify as promotion for touring and merch sales.”

It’s not hard to find managers in the “posi-tive results” camp. “We’ve had artists go from 5,000 streams a day to 100,000 streams a day,” one says. “We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue created by it. We saw around six months of growth.”

A different label leader says several of his acts saw daily streams jump by a factor of two to three. “It’s been really awesome for pop and dance music,” according to a manager who watched acts already earn-ing six-figure daily stream counts enjoy their numbers “double or close to double.” Another manager of a pop act that was earn-ing even more daily streams saw a jump of a similar magnitude. And a third manager

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has seen sizable gains on songs that were already earning more than 500,000 streams a day.

The key to reaping benefits from Discov-ery Mode, according to one of the label-heads who has seen it positively impact hip-hop tracks, is to focus on songs “that are already performing well.” “It won’t enhance a record that’s not streaming,” the label-head adds. “Where it has an impact is viral records” or songs that listeners are already saving and adding to personal playlists. “If you’re running it effectively,” the executive says, “you’re going to make money no matter what.”

For that to happen, the jump in streams has to offset the decrease in revenue from those prioritized radio plays. A pair of man-agers saw 30% less revenue come through on Discovery Mode plays. But since streams nearly doubled when they put songs into the program, both managers view the tradeoff as worth it.

Some distributors and artists, including TuneCore and Terrace Martin, are named as supporters of Discovery Mode on Spo-tify’s website. But more than half a dozen members of the music industry who were enthusiastic about the program and wanted to shout its praises to the skies were not comfortable going on the record about it, describing the initiative as a “taboo” topic.

That’s not because they were aware of the letters Representatives had sent to Spotify,

however. “You don’t want anybody to know that you’re doing a hack that might not be fully organic,” according to the hip-hop label leader. The jump in streams from Discovery Mode “is artificial,” adds another manager. (He still puts viral songs into the program, noting that it helps them “stay viral longer.”)

A third manager believes “it would hurt us if we went to major labels with these [boosted] numbers and they were like, ‘oh, Discovery Mode did this.’” He’s wary of even telling his pals about participating in the program. “When I started bringing this up to friends I trust, they were like, ‘that’s evil, I hate it,’” he says.

“This Is the Golden Age for This Right Now”

Keeping a secret from your friends is one thing. More troubling, perhaps, is that some Discovery Mode users are beginning to get a sense that the impact of the program is di-minishing. This is hard to prove, since each manager or label can only make judgements based on their own limited experiences. The one organization with a big data set to study and a good sense of Discovery’s Mode’s effectiveness — in terms of influencing streams and, maybe more importantly, over-all payouts — is, of course, Spotify, which is notoriously tight-lipped.

One manager who saw 200% to 300% gains for his artists through Discovery Mode last year recently saw the impact fall to 20% to 30% — but he acknowledges that it’s hard

to draw conclusions from just a few acts. Still, there’s logic to the idea that the oomph of Discovery Mode would wear off over time. Bringing a gun to a knife-fight gives you a pronounced advantage, until you show up one day and everyone else has armed themselves in the same fashion. “If more and more people opt in, eventually there’s just limited space,” one label-head says. “I think there’s probably another year left of extracting value out of this.”

If that theory proves to be true, that would mean early adopters would reap the benefits of Discovery Mode, getting in at a time when the lift in streaming outweighs the decrease in revenue, while latecomers would participate primarily to avoid falling further behind. The one entity that would stand to keep extracting value from the program in the long term is Spotify, thanks to an increasing number of streams that pay out at a lower rate.

Two sources say the indie labels and distributors in the Merlin Network got access to Discovery Mode earlier this year, which will increase competition. On top of that, sources say that some distributors are putting artists’ entire catalog into Discov-ery Mode at once. “I’m against that,” one manager says. He supports putting just one or two songs into the program, but believes that throwing a whole catalog in there is getting greedy.

Another manager who agrees that

Page 5 of 26

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 jim.asker@billboard.com

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

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Discovery Mode is “going to get absolutely flooded” is still eager to take advantage of it while he can. “This is the golden age for this right now,” he says. “I think this is an excuse for Spotify to pay people less when they’re not paying people much to begin with. But an artist in the development stage needs everything they can get.”

With European Tours in the Balance, UK Suspends Post-Brexit Rules for Music TruckersBY RICHARD SMIRKE

LONDON — The U.K. government has agreed to temporarily suspend post-Brexit “cabotage” rules for some music haulers, following

warnings from live-industry executives that the regulations were placing more than 100 European summer tours at risk.

The relaxation of rules allows some of the U.K.’s biggest trucking firms to work and travel freely across Europe by temporarily switching their vehicles from an EU opera-tor’s license to a U.K. one for the home leg of a tour.

“This is a temporary exceptional measure which will ensure that our world-leading creative and cultural artists can continue to tour widely,” a government spokesperson tells Billboard.

Since January of 2021, when the post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and the U.K. took full effect, truckers in both regions have been subject to the cabotage rules, which require haulers to return to the EU or the U.K. — wherever their business is based — after making three stops in the other market.

For U.K. trucking firms, which have historically handled 80% to 85% of the Eu-ropean concert business each year, accord-

ing to live-industry executives, those rules have devastating consequences because they prohibit them from servicing tours outside of their home country.

That’s led to some of the biggest U.K. trucking firms splitting their fleet and set-ting up sister bases on EU soil. But even in those circumstances, the regulations cause far-reaching problems by rendering EU-registered trucks unable to legally operate in the U.K. under the terms of their operator’s license.

U.K. concert-business association LIVE says around 110 European summer and fall tours were in jeopardy prior to the govern-ment’s intervention.

“This isn’t a full solution, but it is hugely significant and solves the problems for the larger operators,” says Craig Stanley, a promoter at London-based agency Marshall Arts and chair of the LIVE touring group, who led discussions with the government on behalf of the live sector.

Marshall Arts has 2022 European tours scheduled for Elton John and Herbie Han-cock, which would have been impacted by the cabotage restrictions in some capacity, says Stanley. “The whole live music family —artists, technicians, suppliers, promot-ers, agents — everyone relies on trucks. No trucks means no tours.”

Although the measures are only tempo-rary, Stanley says the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has committed to introducing legislation that will make dual licenses a permanent part of U.K. transport regulations.

The Department for Transport would not comment on whether the measures will become permanent, saying the government recognizes that “challenges remain around touring in the EU and we are continuing to work closely with the industry to address these.”

“We would not have been able to operate our European fleet back in the U.K. without these measures,” says Richard Burnett, managing director of U.K. hauler KB Event, which is providing dozens of trucks for the European leg of Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour, beginning in Dublin on April 19. “It’s a massive relief for [haulers] who are abiding by the legal rules of how they are supposed

to operate.”While a relief to most, the new measures

do come with some caveats. The most sig-nificant is that they only apply to U.K.-based trucking firms that also have EU-registered fleets.

KB Event and several other of the U.K.’s biggest music trucking firms fall into that category, having invested significant sums in setting up EU bases to try and get around the issues raised by Brexit and cabotage. KB Event spent over £500,000 ($687,000) setting up a sister depot in Dublin, exporting trucks across the Irish sea and re-registering them as EU vehicles. Opening an Irish office also required around 60 KB Event drivers to retake their qualifications to gain an EU op-erator’s license, and to obtain new insurance for all vehicles.

Other major U.K. haulers that have started European businesses because of Brexit include Transam Trucking, which has opened subsidiary operations in the Neth-erlands and the Republic of Ireland, and whose upcoming European tours include Elton John and Iron Maiden; and Staget-ruck, which has opened a 4-million-euro ($4.6 million) depot in the Netherlands.

For those companies, the new measures mean they are now able to legally operate across Europe by switching from an EU op-erator’s license to a U.K. one when traveling back to their home country.

U.K. trucking firms that don’t have an EU base do not benefit from the relaxation in regulations. Nor do European trucking firms who operate under an EU license and are therefore only permitted three stops in the U.K. before having to return home. Brit-ish classical orchestras who own their own trucks also will see no benefit and continue to be prohibited from transporting orches-tras outside of their home market.

Ongoing issues around work permits and visa requirements for touring productions in six of the 27 EU member states – including Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Malta and Cyprus – provide further challenges for agents and artist managers when routing tours of Europe.

To get around post-Brexit red tape, some haulers have been illegally ignoring cabo-tage restrictions since European touring re-

Page 7 of 26

IN BRIEF

ENTERTAINMENT, TECH & LIFESTYLE

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sumed earlier this year, report live industry executives.

“So far, they have got away with it but there are serious consequences if you are caught,” says Robert Hewett, founder and director of Stagetruck, whose 2022 tours include Coldplay, Olivia Rodrigo and Bil-lie Eilish. Those consequences include the risk of having trucks and their contents impounded and vehicle and driver licenses suspended.

“For us, and anyone else with an EU base, the new rules are a welcome relief and mean that all of us can get back to doing our jobs fully and legally,” he says.

On the Road to Coachella? Those Billboards Are There Just for YouBY STEVE KNOPPER

The roughly 50-mile stretch of California’s Interstate 10 from Riverside to Indio is mostly barren desert highway — unless you hap-

pen to be traveling in the next two weeks, during the Coachella festival, when the skies light up with hundreds of flashing, color-ful rectangles displaying cryptic messages: “LOUIS THE CHILD IS TWO PEOPLE,” “HETEROSEXUALITY CAN BE CURED – JUST WATCH OMAR APOLLO ON FRI-DAY,” “PSST . . . Looking for UTOPIA?”

The idea behind these I-10 billboards is to immediately focus the attention of Coach-ella travelers on stars and brands — EDM group Louis the Child, Omar Apollo, Travis Scott, Billie Eilish, Kendall Jenner’s 818 tequila, Olly supplements Lovin’ Libido and Happy Hoo-Ha. “The festivalgoer is a very hard-to-reach demographic — the tastemak-ers, the trend-setters, the content creators, the most coveted demographic,” says Sam Keywanfar, founder and CEO of MilkMon-ey, which provides content for 26 billboard advertisers at Coachella this year. “We’re getting them in the early part of the journey.

The inventory doesn’t get lost in the clutter.”Each of these billboards costs between

$15,000 and $40,000, according to Key-wanfar, and many out-of-home advertising companies report they’ve sold more than they did in 2019, the most recent Coachella before the COVID-19 pandemic cancel-ations. Lamar Advertising Company, one of the top billboard operators along this stretch of I-10, reports selling 66 spots for this year’s festival compared to 64 in 2019.

“People are coming back to normal life. We’ve seen some big names that haven’t advertised in the past,” says Ian Dallimore, Lamar’s vp of digital growth. “Without hav-ing to advertise during Coachella, they can advertise on the road leading up to it.”

Coachella billboards first popped up about six years ago, Keywanfar says, when record labels had the idea to not only draw the attention of festivalgoers but the per-formers who travel the same stretch of I-10. Artists immediately pulled over on the high-way and took selfies with their billboards, then posted them on social media. The next year, brands like Millie Bobby Brown’s Florence by Mills and the Rocketman movie followed the trend. Old-school, physical bill-boards are surprisingly effective — a 2021 Harris Poll reported 67% of Generation and millennial consumers remembered seeing these campaigns posted on social media, and 91% said they would share them. Billboards are prominent at other festivals, such as Stagecoach (at the same location in Indio), Bonnaroo (Manchester, Tenn.) and Jay-Z’s Made In America (Philadelphia), but Coach-ella has the ideal combination of social-me-dia popularity and highway routing.

“When fans find a billboard they are drawn to and share it, that’s the holy grail,” Keywanfar says. “All the people we try to hit on an album release or product launch — they’re all going to the same place at the same time, with the one road they have to take to get there.”

Billboard real estate along I-10 is plenti-ful but competitive — this year, accord-ing to AdQuick, 548 billboards lined the route from Los Angeles to the festival site, compared to 485 in 2018 and 533 in 2019. MilkMoney is the top content company in this space, working with artists and labels

to distinguish their messages, such as Billie Eilish’s Adobe campaign.

But not every out-of-home advertising company is seeing the I-10 billboard spike this year. In previous years, local car deal-ers and casinos with year-round billboard contracts sold space to bands and others during the Coachella period at a discount; after festival advertisers abruptly canceled their billboards in 2020 and 2021 when Coachella shut down due to the pandemic, the car dealers and casinos stopped includ-ing them in the contracts. This has created an inventory shortage this year, says Gino Sesto, founder of Dash Two, a Los Angeles outdoor-advertising company that has sold Coachella billboards since roughly 2015.

Sesto’s company booked 20 billboards in 2020, all of which were canceled, and just 15 as of early April this year. “It was just difficult this year,” during this phase of the pandemic, Sesto says. “There are just not a lot of huge advertisers this year. People are like, ‘We don’t know what to do.’ There’s a lot of skepticism still.”

Sesto acknowledges, though, that the Coachella billboards capture a captive audi-ence of festivalgoers who absorb what he estimates to be 75 billboards in the 23 miles from Banning to Palm Springs. “It’s kind of a perfect storm,” he says, “because you have one way in.”

Lamar’s Dallimore adds that this year’s Coachella is perfect timing for billboards, as artists and fans reemerge after two canceled pandemic years. “We’re seeing a lot of this business come back bigger, because people feel more comfortable: ‘I’m going to live my life,’” he says. “It’s the biggest flex to say, ‘Here’s a 14-by-48-foot roadside billboard, here’s my brand.’”

Page 9 of 26

IN BRIEF

On May 14th, Billboard will publish its annual 40Under 40 Issue, celebrating the next generation of leaders in the music industry. This issue will profile 40 power players who are making their mark in music, touring and live entertainment.

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Scooter Braun Says The Kid LAROI Diss Was a Promo Stunt: ‘Don’t Believe Everything You See’BY HANNAH DAILEY

No, The Kid LAROI and Scooter Braun aren’t actually beefing. But it definitely felt real while it lasted.

If you’re confused, you probably haven’t yet seen the 18-year-old’s viral TikTok from Wednesday (April 13), in which he pro-moted his upcoming single “1000 Miles” by sharing photos of former manager Scooter Braun, whom he referred to as his “last mistake.” Fans were quick to assume that LAROI was shedding a negative light on the nature of his split from the music mogul, whom he worked with for only a few months last year.

Just one day later, though, Braun assured everyone that the whole debacle was merely a stunt. On his Instagram story Thursday (April 14), Braun shared screenshots of his text messages with LAROI, proving that his former client had shown him the aforemen-tioned TikTok before posting it. “You got a sec to talk?” the “Stay” singer apparently texted. “I have an idea I wanna run past you.”

“For those asking about the beef…and my friends who are wanting to go hard,” Braun wrote on his story. “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.”

According to the screenshots, Braun and the F*CK LOVE artist also communicated after the TikTok was posted. “People are calling from media thinking you and I got real beef,” the Ithaca Holdings founder sent, with LAROI replying: “LMAO I’m dead. They’re quick with it!”

He went on to encourage followers to check out “1000 Miles,” noting that the April 22-slated track had been produced by his client Andrew Watt, before writing “Still the best” about LAROI. Before putting the matter to rest, however, he had to add his own fake-angry video to the mix.

“Huge mistake,” Braun filmed himself jok-ing about LAROI. “Probably the biggest of your career. That guy’s trash.”

While Braun’s posts seem to clarify that he and his ex client are on good terms, one question remains unanswered: why did he and LAROI part ways in the first place? In June of last year, the rising star joined the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato on Braun’s client roster, and even collaborated with Bieber on what would become a Hot 100 chart-topper, “Stay.”

Three months later, however, LAROI had moved on to a different management team, signing with Adam Leber at Rebel Manage-ment in September.

Now that Braun has cleared the air, it looks like his and LAROI’s separation was good-natured from the beginning — in fact, the Grammy nominee might have meant that his “last mistake” was cutting ties with Braun.

Surprise! Arcade Fire Is Performing at CoachellaBY RANIA ANIFTOS

For those heading to Indio, Calif. this weekend for the long-awaited return of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the first of surely

many surprises in store has been revealed.Arcade Fire is performing at the Mojave

Tent starting at 6:45 p.m. PT on Friday (April 15). Frontman Win Butler teased the news on Thursday (April 14), which also happens to be his 42nd birthday. “Decided to spend my birthday somewhere warm and dry [palm tree emoji] @coachella,” he tweeted.

When Coachella announced the of-ficial set times for the lineup, Arcade Fire was included. Check out the full list of set times here.

Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd alongside Swedish House Ma-fia are set to headline this year’s edition of the popular festival. The Weeknd and Swed-ish House Mafia were quick replacements for last-minute scratch Kanye West, who was originally set to headline on Sunday.

Ye pulled out of Coachella less than two weeks prior to the event. A Change.org pe-tition called for the Yeezy fashion mogul’s removal from the festival lineup in light of his public behavior toward ex-wife Kim Kar-dashian and her boyfriend, Pete Davidson. The petition garnered more than 49,000 signatures and counting.

“I’m so looking forward to this moment with Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd finishing out the Sunday night slot this year,” Paul Tollett, president/CEO of Coachella promoter Goldenvoice said in a statement to Variety. “Coachella has a special relation-ship with Abel and I’m so thankful to have this upcoming performance with these icon-ic artists all on the same stage.” The Weeknd has appeared at the festival twice, first in 2012 and then as a headliner in 2018.

Coachella Set Times Are HereBY TAYLOR MIMS

Coachella set times are finally here!

The Goldenvoice-produced event has released set times for its coveted return with Harry

Styles headlining the main stage on Friday night at 11:35 p.m., Billie Eilish hitting the stage at 11:30 p.m. and Swedish House Ma-fia x The Weeknd teaming up for a 10:20 slot on Sunday night.

Badbadnotgood will have the final slot on Friday night with a 12:05 a.m. start at the Gobi stage, while the late shifts will go to 21 Savage at the Sahara tent on Saturday and The Blessed Madonna + Honey Dijon at the Mojave on Sunday night.

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ISSUE DATE 5/14 | AD CLOSE 5/4 | MATERIALS DUE 5/5

RIAA 70TH ANNIVERSARY2 0 2 2

The Recording Industry Association of America® advocates for American music and the people and companies that create it. RIAA’s several hundred members – ranging from major labels with global reach to small and local businesses and artist-owned labels they distribute and support – make up the world’s most vibrant and innovative music community, partnering with artists to help them reach their potential and connect with fans while supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs. In both Washington, DC and the states, RIAA advocates for policies that grow and strengthen the modern music economy and create opportunities for every segment of our industry. Its tech and legal teams are the leading edge of online content protection, working 24/7 to stopunfair and damaging pre-release leaks and ensure artists and songwriters get paid everywhere and every time their work is used. It is the authoritative source for revenue data and research that reveals important trends and developments in the music business.

And for 60 years it has operated the Gold and Platinum program - a widely recognized bench-mark of success in our industry. In 2022, RIAA marks a major milestone – 70 years supporting American music. So, to honor this ongoing evolution and the RIAA’s commitment to great music and a strong healthy music ecosystem with opportunities for all, please join Billboard in congratulating RIAA on its 70th Anniversary.

C O N T A C T SJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | joe.maimone@billboard.com

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | laphotoglo@gmail.com

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | cmellow.billboard@gmail.com

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | marciaolival29@gmail.com

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | rodonnell@pmc.com

Doja Cat will perform on the main stage prior to SHM + The Weeknd at 8:30, follow-ing a 7 p.m. Karol G performance, Maggie Rogers at 5:45 p.m. and Run the Jewels’ 45-minute play kicking off at 4:35 p.m. on Sunday.

Friday evening will launch the festival with main-stage performances from Prin-cess Nokia (2:35 p.m.), MIKA (3:40 p.m.), Ari Lennox (4:50 p.m.), Anitta (6 p.m.), Grupo Firme (7:10 p.m.) and Daniel Caesar (10:10 p.m.).

Goldenvoice was later than usual an-nouncing set times for this year’s weekend one. In a tweet revealing the times, the festival noted the set times were “unprec-edented.”

In previous years, Coachella has been known to release set times later than most major festivals – with the reveal coming the Monday or Tuesday before weekend one. With two canceled years due to the pandemic, the festival has undergone major lineup changes for its 2022 event, including dropping Travis Scott after his own festival, Astroworld, left several dead due to a crowd crush. In addition, late-in-the-game head-liner Kanye West pulled out of the event just weeks before it was scheduled to begin.

The full list of set times for weekend one of Coachella 2022 can be found below.

Dvora Englefield Joins WME as Partner and Head of Music Artist StrategyBY TAYLOR MIMS

Industry executive Dvora Englefield is headed to WME as the agency’s new partner and head of music artist strategy. In the newly created role,

Englefield will focus on WME to identify and maximize new business opportunities, strategic partnerships and client services for the music division.

“Dvora is a driving force in the music business, responsible for guiding the careers of countless artists through her combina-tion of creativity, strategic counsel and deep industry relationships,” said co-heads of WME’s music division Lucy Dick-ins and Kirk Sommer in a statement. “We look forward to bringing her truly unique skillset to our colleagues and clients as we continue to build out best in class services for our music roster.”

Englefield heads to WME after most recently serving as a partner and co-head of the music division at communications firm The Lede Company. Over the course of her career Englefield has represented many top artists, providing them with strategic counsel across communications, business, philanthropy and brand partnerships. Her clients included multiple Grammy, Tony, Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy award win-ners and nominees. Prior to The Lede Com-pany, Englefield led the music department at 42West, and before that ran the music department at BWR. She will finish out the month at The Lede Company and officially start at WME on May 9.

“WME is the best of the best,” said Engle-field in a release. “As the music and enter-tainment landscapes continue to change, I am beyond excited for the opportunity to take my experience and transition into this new and exciting role. I’m honored to have the trust of such an incredibly forward thinking and innovative team. Extra special thanks to Kirk, Lucy and my longtime friend and mentor John Marx.”

“It brings us great joy to see our dear friend and long-time colleague take her ca-reer in an exciting new direction,” said Lede co-CEOs Amanda Silverman, Meredith O’Sullivan, Sarah Rothman and Christine Su in a release. “Dvora is a very strategic and talented executive and we are excited to continue to collaborate with her in her new role.”

Where In the World Is Harry Styles? ‘As It Was’ Blankets Billboard’s Hits of the World ChartsBY ERIC FRANKENBERG

As previously reported, Harry Styles‘ “As It Was” bounds in atop the April 16-dated Bill-board Hot 100, Billboard

Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. It’s the ninth song to complete the opening-week trifecta since the global charts launched in September 2020, but the first to do so since Billboard‘s Hits of the World charts premiered in February.

“As It Was” arrives at No. 1 on a hefty 16 Hits of the World lists, or a third of the full international chart well. It places in the top 10 of 30 rankings and appears on a total of 37 tallies. The song’s debuts reflect the April 1-7 tracking week (after the song was re-leased at 7 p.m. ET March 31), when it drew 122.1 million official streams and sold 19,000 worldwide, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data.

An English-language song by a British singer-songwriter, it’s perhaps unsurprising that “As It Was” is No. 1 on U.K. Songs and other primarily English-language territories such as Australia and Ireland, as well as in many European countries, including Bel-gium, Luxembourg and Sweden.

Further, Styles’ international reach spreads geographically to where English has a notable presence, as the song starts at No. 2 on Singapore Songs and No. 3 on South Africa Songs.

The 30 top 10 placements for “As It Was” also include Malaysia Songs (No. 4), Peru Songs (No. 5) and Spain Songs (No. 10). Styles’ status in South America and Asia extends to No. 14 debuts on both Chile Songs and Philippines Songs, plus bows

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ISSUE DATE 5/14 | AD CLOSE 5/4 | MATERIALS DUE 5/5

THIRD EYE BLIND2 0 2 2

Since 1997, San Francisco's Third Eye Blind has recorded five best-selling albums and assembled one career retrospective. Led by Stephan Jenkins, 3EB has earned worldwide success during a tumultuous group of years when the major-label record-ing industry was finally losing its grip on an enterprise that for decades it had dominated with steely efficiency.

Third Eye Blind’s 2021 album Our Bande Apart was recorded when lockdown ended, with Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast and Ryan Olson of Poliça. The band has continued to have gained artistic clarification—and, surprisingly, a fanbase that is larger, younger and more dedicated than ever.

Now celebrating 25 years of their iconic self-titled album, the band has an upcoming summer tour and has teamed up with Smith & Cult to create a series of nail polish colors with proceeds from shade "Jumper" to support True Colors United - a foundation committed to supporting LGBTQ youth. The band will be supporting SeaTrees on their 2022 Summer Gods tour, an organization that helps restore a portion of the Palos Verdes Kelp Forest. The ocean has the power to restore climate change.

The latest science shows that globally, kelp forests can sequester more carbon than mangrove forests - restoring these sequoias of the sea is critical to solving climate change as 93% of all carbon in the carbon cycle is stored in our oceans (meaning just 7% is stored across our atmosphere and land biosphere.

C O N T A C T SJoe Maimone201.301.5933 | joe.maimone@billboard.com

Lee Ann Photoglo615.376.7931 | laphotoglo@gmail.com

Cynthia Mellow615.352,0265 | cmellow.billboard@gmail.com

Marcia Olival 786.586.4901 | marciaolival29@gmail.com

Ryan O’Donnell +447843437176 | rodonnell@pmc.com

25TH ANNIVERSARY

in Colombia (No. 15) and Turkey (No. 23).Of 11 Hits of the World charts where

Styles does not debut, eight are in Asia, in-cluding India, Japan and Taiwan. The others are Argentina, Italy and Russia.

In the U.S., “As It Was” soars in at No. 1 on Streaming Songs, No. 2 on Digital Song Sales and No. 19 on Radio Songs, fueling his arrival atop the Hot 100.

Mary J. Blige to Receive Icon Award at 2022 Billboard Music AwardsBY PAUL GREIN

Mary J. Blige will receive the Icon Award at the 2022 Bill-board Music Awards. The 10-time BBMA winner will

also perform on the show. The BBMAs will broadcast live coast-to-coast from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sun-day, May 15.

Blige is the 11th artist to receive the Icon Award, which recognizes outstand-ing artists who have achieved excellence on the Billboard charts and have made an indelible mark on music itself. Previous recipients have been Neil Diamond, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jennifer Lopez, Ce-line Dion, Cher, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks, and P!NK.

“My career has been such an incredible and unexpected journey that has included many turns into avenues I never could have imagined like acting, producing, launching businesses and now even my own music festival,” Blige said in a statement. “Through it all, I always one way or another gravitated back to my first love, music. To be recog-nized in this way at this moment, with the Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards, is an incredible honor and one that I am truly humbled by.”

Blige won the 1995 Billboard Music

Award for R&B album of the year and scooped up nine awards at the 2006 show.

Blige has won nine Grammys. In 2017, she became the first person in Oscar history to be nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year, for her work in Mudbound. Blige is likely to receive her first Emmy nomination this year for her participation in the all-star Super Bowl Halftime Show in February alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. (They would be nominated in the category of outstanding variety special (live).)

Blige has amassed four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 (Share My World, Love & Life, The Breakthrough and Growing Pains) and one No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 (“Family Affair,” which topped the chart for six weeks in 2001). She is the seventh woman to receive the Icon Award. The first three recipients were male, but since then, Brooks is the only male honoree.

At 51, Blige is right in the age range of past Icon Award recipients. Last year’s winner, P!nk, was the youngest recipient to date at 41. Diamond are Cher are the oldest recipi-ents to date. They were each 70 when they received the honor.

All of the previous Icon Award recipients also performed on the show, as Blige has agreed to do. Wonder performed a medley with Alicia Keys. Dion was backed in perfor-mance by Lindsey Stirling.

Blige received a lifetime achievement award at the BET Awards in 2019 and received the icon of the year award at the Billboard Women in Music event in 2017. But other top career honors, such as a life-time achievement award from the Recording Academy, are still (likely) in her future.

The Weeknd is the top contender for the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. He is a final-ist in 17 categories, including top artist, top male artist and top Hot 100 artist. His col-laboration with Ariana Grande, “Save Your Tears (Remix),” is up for six awards.

Doja Cat is the leading female finalist with 14 nods, including top artist, top female artist and top Hot 100 artist.

Justin Bieber, Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Olivia Rodrigo each have 13 nods.

Five new categories were unveiled this year, with four based on Billboard’s first

authoritative global charts and one measur-ing viral songs. This brings the total number of categories to 62. This year’s awards are based on the tracking period of March 26, 2021, through March 17, 2022. That corre-sponds to Billboard chart dates of April 10, 2021, through March 26, 2022.

Billboard Music Awards finalists and win-ners are based on key fan interactions with music, including album and digital song sales, streaming, radio airplay, and social engagement, tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including Luminate (formerly MRC Data).

The BBMAs have celebrated music’s greatest achievements for more than 30 years. Unique among music awards shows, finalists are determined by performance on the Billboard charts. The recipient of the Billboard Change Maker Award, which honors an artist or group that speaks truth to power through their music, platform and/or community, will be announced at a later date.

The BBMAs will broadcast live coast-to-coast from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 15 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC and will stream live on Peacock. This year’s host has not been announced. Nick Jonas served as host last year. Kelly Clarkson hosted the three years before that.

The 2022 Billboard Music Awards are produced by MRC Live & Alternative. Rob-ert Deaton is executive producer. Tickets to attend the show are available to the public. Prices start at $90 per ticket and are avail-able for purchase here. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

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Elon Musk Offers to Increase Twitter Ownership From 9% to 100%BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Elon Musk is offering to buy Twit-ter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media compa-

ny’s board of directors.Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on

Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9% of its stock and is the company’s biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twit-ter’s stock.

He called that price his best and final offer, although the billionaire provided no details on financing. The offer is non-binding and subject to financing and other conditions.

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk says in the filing. “How-ever, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

The buyout offer from Musk is just the latest development in his relationship with Twitter. The billionaire revealed in regu-latory filings over recent weeks that he’d been buying shares in almost daily batches starting Jan. 31. Only Vanguard Group’s suite of mutual funds and ETFs controls more Twitter shares.

Musk has been a vocal critic of of Twitter in recent weeks, mostly over his belief that it falls short on free speech principles. The social media platform has angered follow-ers of Donald Trump and other far-right political figures who’ve had their accounts

suspended for violating its content stan-dards on violence, hate or harmful misinfor-mation. Musk also has a history of his own tweets causing legal problems.

Musk said last week that he informed Twitter he wouldn’t be joining its board of directors five days after he was invited. He didn’t explain why, but the decision coin-cided with a barrage of now-deleted tweets from Musk proposing major changes to the company, such as dropping ads — its chief source of revenue — and transforming its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter. Musk left a few clues on Twitter about his thinking, such as by “liking” a tweet that summarized the events as Musk going from “largest shareholder for Free Speech” to being “told to play nice and not speak freely.”

After Musk announced his stake, Twit-ter quickly gave Musk a seat on its board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9% of the company’s outstanding stock, according to a filing. But Musk backed out of the deal.

Musk’s 81 million Twitter followers make him one of the most popular figures on the platform, rivaling pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his prolific tweeting has sometimes gotten him into trouble with the SEC and others.

Musk and Tesla in 2018 agreed to pay $40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That didn’t happen but the tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to jump. Musk’s latest trouble with the SEC could be his delay in notifying regulators of his growing stake in Twitter.

Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said he doesn’t think Twitter is living up to free speech principles — an opinion shared by follow-ers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who’ve had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.

Shares of Twitter jumped 11% before the market open. The stock is still down from its 52-week high of about $73. Shares of Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer that Musk heads, slipped about 0.9%.

The Deals: Lostboycrow Plugs Into Nettwerk; Merlin Goes With FLOBY CHRIS EGGERTSEN

Los Angeles indie-pop artist Lost-boycrow signed to Nettwerk, which just released his new single “Chewed Up.” His prior releases

include the 2016 EP Sigh For Me, 2017 EP trilogy Traveler, 2019 album Santa Fe and 2021 album Valleyheart.

Digital music licensing service Mer-lin struck a partnership with South Korean streaming service FLO that will allow Merlin members to expand their audiences in the country. Users on FLO will now have access to music from Merlin members including Hong Kong-based music distribu-tion and media company Euphoria Media, Latin American online digital distribution company FaroLatino, Brazilian platform Sua Música and California-based punk indie Hopeless Records.

Warner Music Nashville and Elektra Music Group signed country singer-song-writer Bailey Zimmerman. According to a press release, Zimmerman averages nearly 5 million global streams per week, driven by his viral hit “Never Comin’ Home.” He’s co-managed by Simon Tikhman and Chief Za-ruk of The Core Entertainment and Chris Nilsson and Scott Frazier of 10th St Entertainment.

Metaverse “innovation and entertainment company” Infinite Realty acquired esports and entertainment conglomerate ReK-TGlobal in a $470 million all-stock deal, according to a press release. The deal was based on an equity valuation for Infinite Re-ality of $2 billion, for a combined post-close valuation of $2.47 billion. The transaction’s completion is subject to customary closing conditions, including ReKTGlobal share-holder approval, as well as regulatory and

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other approvals.Italian drill rapper Rondodasosa – best

known for tracks including “Louboutin,” “Slatt” feat. Capo Plaza and Central Cee’s “Eurovision,” on which he’s featured – signed a recording deal with Warner Music Italy.

Country singer-songwriter Corey Kent signed with WME for global repre-sentation. Kent will work with agents Nate Towne and Hayley Riddle alongside his team at Triple 8 Management. His recent single “Wild as Her” has been streamed over 17 million times since its March 4 release, according to a press release.

Country/pop singer-songwriter Jordana Bryant signed with Riser House Enter-tainment, which will release her single “Guilty” – written alongside Zack Kale, Seth Mosley and Allison Veltz – on April 22. Best known for YouTube and Instagram covers of songs by Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Gabby Barrett and more, she’s slated to release an album of original songs later this year.

David Bowie Documentary ‘Moonage Daydream’ Is Coming to Theaters, HBOBY DARLENE ADEROJU

An all-new documentary cel-ebrating the life of late British rockstar David Bowie is nearing completion and will be released

by NEON and Universal Pictures Content Group, the companies announced Wednes-day (April 13). Titled Moonage Daydream, the film will be released by NEON in the U.S., while Universal Pictures Content Group has international distribution rights.

No theatrical release date has been announced, though the film is slated to pre-

miere on HBO and HBO Max in spring 2023 via HBO Documentary Films. Theatrical en-gagements for Moonage Daydream — which marks the first film under a multi-picture deal between Morgen and BMG for IMAX Productions — will include IMAX screen-ings in select markets.

Five years in the making, Moonage Day-dream was written, directed, edited and produced by Brett Morgen, who was given “unfiltered” access to Bowie’s personal archives, including all master recordings, according to a press release. While research-ing the film, Morgen came across hundreds of hours of never-before-seen 35mm and 16mm footage, allowing him to assemble Bowie’s performances from these original camera masters. The resulting project is described as “an artful and life-affirming film that takes the audience on a journey through Bowie’s creative life.”

Morgen was assisted in the effort by Bowie’s long-time collaborator, friend and music producer Tony Visconti; sound mixer Paul Massey (Bohemian Rhapsody); sound engineer David Giammarco (Ford v. Ferrari); the sound design team of John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone (Bohemian Rhapsody); and visual effects producer Stefan Nadelman (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck).

Guided by “Bowie’s narration,” according to the release, Moonage Daydream includes 48 musical tracks mixed from their original stems and is the first film to be officially sanctioned by his estate. BMG has a 25% stake in Bowie’s songs released between 1970 to 1977, including the title song “Moon-age Daydream” along with “Changes,” “Star-man,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “The Jean Genie,” “All The Young Dudes,” “Life on Mars,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Fame,” “Young Americans” and “Golden Years.” The company addition-ally has the rights to six early Bowie record-ings first released on the Pye label in 1966. BMG notes that its relationship with the Bowie catalog isn’t affected by WMG’s Jan-uary acquisition of Bowie’s song catalog.

Moonage Daydream is part of an ongoing Bowie75 commemoration in honor of the icon’s life and musical legacy. Bowie died of liver cancer in January 2016 and would have turned 75 on Jan. 8, 2022.

In a statement, BMG executive vp of

global repertoire Fred Casimir said, “This has been a five year labour of love to honour one of the greatest song catalogues in music history. BMG is proud to build on our long-term relationship with the David Bowie estate working hand-in-hand with our part-ners Live Nation Productions to bring Brett Morgen’s vision to the big screen.”

Live Nation Productions partnered with BMG on Moonage Daydream as co-financiers and executive producers. Additional executive producers on the project include Hartwig Masuch, Kathy Rivkin-Daum and Justus Haerder for BMG; Michael Rapino, Heather Par-ry and Ryan Kroft for Live Nation Produc-tions; Bill Zysblat, Tom Cyrana, Aisha Cohen and Eileen D’Arcy for RZO; Billy Gerber and Debra Eisenstadt.

NEON’s Jeff Deutchman negotiated the North America deal with Kevin Koloff, as well as Karen Gottlieb of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, P.C. Submarine and WME handled sales.

Moonage Daydream is the latest documen-tary film project for BMG, which announced its expansion into music-related mov-ies in 2017. Previous releases include Bad Reputation, about the life and career of Joan Jett; David Crosby: Remember My Name, which was nominated for Best Music Film at the 62nd Grammys; DIO: Dreamers Never Die, about the life and career of Ronnie James Dio; Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records; and Echo In The Canyon, about the Laurel Canyon music scene of the ’60s and ’70s. BMG also recently partnered with Pulse and Quickfire Films to produce Lewis Capaldi’s debut feature-length documentary.

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CMT Music Awards Score Big Increase in TV Ratings With CBS MoveBY RICK PORTER

The CMT Music Awards scored huge year to year ratings in-creases on Monday — no surprise, since the show moved from its

namesake cable outlet to broadcaster CBS. ABC’s American Idol finished in a near-tie with the awards, with both coming in way ahead of American Song Contest on NBC.

The CMT Music Awards averaged 5.33 million viewers for CBS, almost four times the 1.43 million who watched the 2021 awards across CMT, Paramount Network and MTV (last year’s show also aired on MTV2 and TV Land, but figures from those two aren’t immediately available). Monday’s show delivered a 0.67 rating among adults 18-49, more than doubling the 0.29 for CMT, Paramount Net and TV Land last year.

By comparison, CBS’ last broadcast of the ACM Awards in 2021 brought in 6.28 million viewers, which was an all-time low for the show. (The ACM Awards moved to Ama-zon’s Prime Video this year, rendering audi-ence figures unavailable.)

American Idol, meanwhile, put up more decent numbers for ABC. It narrowly trailed the CMT Music Awards in total viewers with 5.31 million but edged ahead in adults 18-49 with a 0.68 rating, the best of the night across broadcast and cable. The Good Doc-tor (3.99 million viewers, 0.39 18-49 rating) improved a bit week to week.

Fox’s 911 (5.06 million viewers, 0.62 in 18-49) and 911: Lone Star (4.24 million, 0.45) were both up in total viewers from their last outing two weeks ago. American Song Con-test slipped to a season-low 1.44 million view-ers and matched last week’s 0.28 in the 18-49 demographic on NBC; The Endgame (1.51 million, 0.21) was on par with a week ago.

Fox News’ The Five (3.41 million view-ers) was the most watched cable show on Monday, while WWE Monday Night Raw led the 18-49 demo with a 0.54 rating over its three hours.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

‘We Ready’ Rapper Archie Eversole Killed by Brother, Say PoliceBY GIL KAUFMAN

One week after “We Ready” rap-per Archie Eversole (born Ar-thur Eversole) died of gunshot wounds from a March 25 shoot-

ing in the Atlanta area, the MC’s brother has been charged with his murder. According to a statement from the DeKalb Country Police Department, Eversole, 37, was shot last month and taken to a nearby hospital, where he died from his injuries on April 3.

Investigators say that they were called to a Chevron station last month, where they found a victim with a gunshot wound. Eversole’s brother, Alexander Kraus, was found at the Chevron where the shooting took place and taken into custody without incident, according to police. Kraus was charged with aggravated assault, with the charges upgraded following Eversole’s death. At press time police said that Kraus is locked up in the DeKalb County Jail on on the murder charge.

Eversole’s standout hit “We Ready,” which features Bubba Sparxxx and samples Steam’s 1969 No. 1 Hot 100 hit “Na Na Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” reached No. 64 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in July 2002 and became the anthem for the Atlanta United soccer club and its fans, the Five Stripes nation.

In a statement on Thursday (April 14), Atlanta United honored the rapper, writ-ing, “We are heartbroken to hear of the tragic passing of Archie Eversole. A staple in

the Atlanta hip-hop scene, Archie adopted Atlanta United before our first season and continued to be one of our club’s most fer-vent supporters. In addition to his decorated musical career, his voice will long live in our supporters’ minds as ‘We Ready’ billows through the speakers for kick-off at Atlanta United matches. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends.”

His music was also embraced by other sports, including the NFL using it as the soundtrack of a 2019 season kick-off campaign. Eversole also charted two albums on Billboard’s charts: Ride Wit Me reached No. 85 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and Ride Wit Me Dirty South Style reached No. 16 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 83 on the Billboard 200.

Watch “We Ready” and see Atlanta United’s tribute below.

Epic Games Launching First Partnership With Coachella For ‘Music-Reactive’ Fortnite OutfitsBY GIL KAUFMAN

Epic Games is bringing the Fortnite experience to Coachella. After teasing the launch of the interac-tive “Coachellaverse,” the Indio,

California festival announced on Thurs-day (April 14) that its first-ever gaming partnership will introduced attendees to ‘Chella through music-reactive outfits that will allow players to dress their avatars in Coachella-inspired clothes that react to music playing in the game.

“As Coachella continues to scale online, we recognize the importance of creating fun digital experiences to drive engagement and build community,” said the festival’s innova-tion lead Sam Schoonover in a statement. “There are few companies that do this bet-

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ter than Fortnite. We’re excited to partner with such an epic entertainment brand to reimagine Coachella for the next generation of fans.”

In addition, there will be an in-game Icon Radio takeover, in which players can listen to more than 30 acts from this year’s lineup in their vehicles as well as new in-game items and outfits dropping each weekend of the fest. The first wave of items will drop on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET and features Wilder & Lyric cosmetics that will react when a player hears music in the battle royale, with the second wave slated to arrive on April 21 at 8 p.m. ET with Alto & Poets outfits; all the outfits are music-reactive and include matching accessories according to the release.

This year’s Coachella will kick off on Friday (April 15) and run through Sunday (April 17), followed by the second weekend from April 22-24; last week it was confirmed that The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia would replace Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) at the top of the bill after the rapper unexpectedly pulled out of his headlining slots.

Arcade Fire to Replace Foo Fighters as Headliners of Canada’s Osheaga FestivalBY FRED SAHAI

Arcade Fire will be replacing Foo Fighters as headliners at the Os-heaga Music And Arts Festival.

Osheaga is set to take place from July 29-31 in Montreal, Canada. Arcade Fire will headline day one. Other headliners of the three-day event are A$AP Rocky and Dua Lipa. This edition will mark the 15th anniversary of the indie music festival, following two cancellations in 2020

and 2021.Foo Fighters canceled their planned tour

and festival appearances following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last month.

“When the Foo Fighters unfortunately had to cancel, it was extremely important to us that we book a band that means some-thing special to our local music fans as well as an artist that would appeal to a huge fan base internationally. We are thrilled that our local hometown heroes Arcade Fire were able to step in and fill the void. The band put on one of the most memorable headline sets in Osheaga history in 2010, and having them back for our 15th anniversary will be really special,” explained Osheaga founder Nick Farkas.

Arcade Fire was founded in Montreal in 2001 and headlined Osheaga in 2010. The band shared the news on their Insta-gram account and included a video of front-man Win Butler saying they’ll be dedicating their set to Hawkins. “I considered Taylor from the Foo Fighters a friend,” said Butler. “He was always so sweet and so musical, and we’re gonna be dedicating our perfor-mance at Osheaga to him. And we can’t wait to see all of you, take care of each other.”

Check out the post below.

Billie Eilish & Conan Gray Exclusive Merch Coming to American Express Coachella Pop-UpBY RANIA ANIFTOS

Billie Eilish and Conan Gray will be heading to the desert over the next two weekends to perform at Coachella Valley Music and

Arts Festival, with Eilish headlining on Sat-urday (April 16 & 23).

To celebrate the occasion, for the first time on the festival grounds, American

Express partnered with Bravado to create a one-of-a-kind artist pop-up shop in their on-site lounge, where Amex card members will have access to exclusive, limited-edition Eilish and Gray merch.

The pop-up shop, which will be open on the first day of both festival weekends (April 15 and April 22), will also be available online via AmexArtistShop.com from Friday all the way through April 30 for card members who won’t be making the trip to California to attend the festival in person.

For those who are going to be at Coachel-la, Amex card members get exclusive perks including one complimentary ride on the La Grande Wheel, access to a reserved hour at the iconic rainbow tower Spectra daily from noon to 1 p.m., access to reserved tables at the Broad Street restaurant pop-up on the festival grounds, a complimentary gift with purchase at the Campground General Store and a one-time $10 statement credit when they spend $50 on-site using their eligible American Express card.

Additionally, the pop-up is located at the American Express lounge on site, which al-lows card members and up to three guests to enjoy treats, wellness activities and a hydra-tion station.

Cuba Gooding Jr. Pleads Guilty to Forcible TouchingBY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday (April 13) to forcibly touching a woman at a New York nightclub in 2018.

The guilty plea came nearly three years after the the Oscar-winning Jerry Magu-ire star was arrested in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get charges reduced or dismissed.

The actor, 54, was accused of violating three different women at various Manhat-tan night spots in 2018 and 2019 but pleaded guilty to just one of the allegations.

He told the judge he “kissed the waitress

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on her lips” without consent at the LAVO New York nightclub.

Gooding’s plea deal calls for no jail time. If he continues counseling for six months, he can withdraw the misdemeanor plea and plead guilty to a lesser violation of harass-ment.

Gooding was arrested in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman told police he squeezed her breast without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square.

A few months later, he was charged in two additional cases as more women came forward to accuse him of abuse. The new charges alleged he pinched a server’s but-tocks after making a sexually suggestive remark to her at TAO Downtown and forc-ibly touched a woman inappropriately at the LAVO nightclub, both in 2018.

Gooding had previously pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts and de-nied all allegations of wrongdoing. His law-yers have argued that overzealous prosecu-tors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, are trying to turn “commonplace gestures” or misunderstandings into crimes.

The judge had ruled that if the Gooding case went to trial, prosecutors could have called two additional women to testify about their allegations that Gooding also violated them. Those women, whose claims did not result in criminal charges, were among 19 other accusers whom prosecutors were seeking to call as witnesses.

Along with the criminal case, Gooding is accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in New York City in 2013. After a judge issued a default judgment in July because Good-ing hadn’t responded to the lawsuit, the actor retained a lawyer and is fighting the allegations.

No Resolve’s ‘Encanto’ Cover Rules Rock Digital Song Sales ChartsBY KEVIN RUTHERFORD

No Resolve triples up atop Bill-board‘s rock genre-based digital song sales charts dated April 16 with its latest Disney movie song

cover.The band’s amped-up rendition of Jes-

sica Darrow‘s “Surface Pressure” from Encanto debuts at No. 1 on the Rock Digital Song Sales, Alternative Digital Song Sales and Hard Rock Digital Song Sales charts with 5,800 downloads sold in is first week (April 1-7), according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data.

It’s No Resolve’s first No. 1 on Alterna-tive Digital Song Sales, exceeding the No. 7 peak of its cover of Adele‘s “Easy on Me” in November. On Rock Digital Song Sales, the band adds its second ruler and first as a lead act, following its featured turn on State of Mine‘s cover of Garth Brooks‘ “The Thun-der Rolls,” which led in February 2021.

As for Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, No Resolve now boasts three No. 1s, as “Pres-sure” follows “Thunder” and, last month, the band’s cover of Lil Durk‘s Morgan Wallen-featuring “Broadway Girls,” with No Resolve’s version sporting co-lead Drew Jacobs and featuring Nate Good.

No Resolve has charted one other Disney cover: In February, its take on Moana‘s “How Far I’ll Go” hit at Nos. 3, 9 and 12 on the Hard Rock, Rock and Alternative Digital Song Sales tallies, respectively.

“Pressure” concurrently enters the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart at No. 9. In addition to its first-week sales, the song also pulled 308,000 official U.S. streams. It’s the band’s third top 10, following the No. 10-peaking “Easy” and the one-week No. 1 “Thunder.”

Kem Ties Maxwell & Charlie Wilson For Adult R&B No. 1 RecordBY TREVOR ANDERSON

The claim to the most No. 1s by a male artist on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart heats up again as Kem ascends to the top of the

list dated April 16 with “Stuck on You.” The new champ gives the R&B veteran his eighth No. 1, tying him with Charlie Wilson and Maxwell for the most among male acts. Wilson set the mark in 2020; Maxwell matched it just two weeks ago.

“Stuck on You,” which Kem co-wrote and solely produced, climbs from No. 4 after an 11% gain in plays in the week ending April 10, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data. It now secures its place as the week’s most-played song at U.S. monitored adult R&B radio stations.

As “Stuck” joins the No. 1 club, here’s a review of Kem’s eight career leaders:

“Love Calls,” two weeks at No. 1, begin-ning Sept. 13, 2003 “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” seven, May 21, 2005 “Why Would You Stay?,” two, Sept. 25, 2010 “It’s You,” four, Sept. 6, 2014 “Nobody,” nine, Feb. 21, 2015 “Lie to Me,” seven, June 27, 2020 “Live out Your Love,” featuring Toni Brax-ton, two, Jan. 2, 2021 “Stuck on You,” one (to date), April 16, 2022

As aforementioned, Kem’s count equals Charlie Wilson and Maxwell for the most No. 1s among male acts since the chart began in 1993. Here’s a look at the overall leaderboard:

Alicia Keys, 12 Toni Braxton, 11 Charlie Wilson, 8 Kem, 8 Maxwell, 8 H.E.R., 7 Mary J. Blige, 7

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R. Kelly, 7Elsewhere, “Stuck” rises 25-22 on the

overall R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which measures audience from both adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations. On the current list, “Stuck” gained 18% in weekly audience to 6.2 million in the week ending April 10. The single brings the R&B veteran to 12 top 25 visits since his first, “Love Calls,” in 2003.

The Black Keys’ ‘Wild Child’ Reigns on Adult Alternative Airplay ChartBY KEVIN RUTHERFORD

The Black Keys reach No. 1 on Billboard‘s Adult Alternative Airplay chart with “Wild Child,” which rises to the top of the rank-

ing dated April 16.“Child” ascends to the summit in its

fourth week on the tally, becoming the second song to take four or fewer frames to reign in 2022, following Portugal. The Man‘s “What, Me Worry?,” which also led in its fourth week (March 19).

It’s The Black Keys’ seventh No. 1 on Adult Alternative Airplay and first since “Crawling Kingsnake,” which led for three weeks beginning last May. The duo first ruled with “Lonely Boy” in 2011-12. Since its first week on top (Dec. 17, 2011), the act boasts the most leaders in that span, one-upping The Lumineers.

Over the history of Adult Alternative Airplay, which began in January 1996, The Black Keys tie for the sixth-most No. 1s. Coldplay and U2 lead with 13 apiece.

Most No. 1s, Adult Alternative Airplay 13, Coldplay 13, U2 11, Dave Matthews (solo and with Dave Mat-thews Band) 10, Jack Johnson

8, John Mayer 7, The Black Keys 7, Counting Crows 7, Sheryl Crow 7, R.E.M.

Elsewhere, “Child” lifts 5-4 on Alterna-tive Airplay and 16-15 on Mainstream Rock Airplay. On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Air-play chart, the song bullets at its No. 3 best with 5.2 million audience impressions, up 7%, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data.

“Child” also jumps 36-31 (after debuting at its No. 21 high in March) on the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs list. In addition to its airplay, the song earned 779,000 official U.S. streams and sold 600 downloads in the April 1-7 tracking week.

The song introduces Dropout Boogie, The Black Keys’ 11th studio album, due May 13.

Byron Cage Notches His Third No. 1 on Gospel Airplay Chart With ‘You Are’BY JIM ASKER

Byron Cage‘s “You Are” ascends to the summit of Billboard‘s Gospel Airplay chart, dated April 16.

In the tracking week end-ing April 10, the single increased by 11% in plays, according to Luminate, formerly MRC Data. “You Are” marks the second consecu-tive and third overall chart-topper for the Atlanta-based Cage, after “I Can’t Give Up” led for a week in April 2021.

Cage first topped Gospel Airplay in 2006, when his second entry, “I Will Bless the Lord,” reigned for seven frames beginning that April. In addition to his three leaders, he boasts five other top 10s.

Meanwhile, Nashville-based sibling trio Cain, which comprises Logan, Madison and Taylor Cain, earns its third top 10 on

the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Christian Songs chart, as “The Commis-sion” pushes 11-9.

On Christian Airplay, the song climbs 7-6, returning to its high, up 4% to 6.8 million in audience. It also drew 1 million U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads in the tracking week. The threesome last visited the Hot Christian Songs upper tier with “Yes He Can,” which rose to No. 5 last August. Cain’s first of five entries, “Rise Up (Lazarus),” reached No. 4 in January 2021.

“The Commission” is Cain’s fifth Chris-tian Airplay top 10. Two have led the list: “Rise Up” and “Yes He Can,” each for four weeks.

Sakurazaka46 Rises to No. 1 as Tani Yuuki Scores First Top 10 Hit on Japan Hot 100BY BILLBOARD JAPAN

Sakurazaka46 hits No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated April 13, with its latest track “Samidareyo.” The J-pop girl

group’s fourth single sold 452,752 copies in its first week to rule physical sales, and also comes in at No. 2 for look-ups, No. 19 for downloads, No. 27 for streaming, No. 18 for radio airplay, and No. 6 for Twitter men-tions.

“Samidareyo” launched with about 45,000 more CDs than the group’s previ-ous single called “Nagaredama,” which sold 407,334 first-week copies. The new single also improved in streaming (600k more weekly streams) compared to the previous single, but fell short by about 5,000 units in downloads.

Last week’s No. 1 song, Snow Man’s “Brother Beat,” slips to No. 3 but continues to maintain momentum. After ruling sales, look-ups, radio, and video views last week, the track holds at No. 1 for look-ups and

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video, and also fares well in sales with 35,219 copies this week. Total sales for the CD add up to 844,301 copies.

Rising singer-songwriter Tani Yuuki scores his first top 10 hit with “W / X / Y,” rising 12-9 on this week’s chart. Streams for the track increased by 11.3% from the week before with 6,930,279 weekly streams, rising 6-2 for the metric.

Hitmaker Gen Hoshino is back with another potential top 10 hit on his hands. “Kigeki,” the ending theme of the new an-ime series SPYxFAMILY, dropped on April 8 and debuts at No. 11 this week, racking up 19,907 downloads (No. 1) with only three days to tally this week. With a full week to count, the track is set to break into the top 10 next week.

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.

For the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Apr. 4 to Apr. 10, head here.

Billie Eilish, FINNEAS to Guest Star on Special ‘Simpsons’ Short on Disney+BY HANNAH DAILEY

From neon green hair to comically large designer sweatsuits, Billie Ei-lish has made quite a few fashion statements throughout her career.

Now, she’s going in a new direction: yellow.As announced Thursday (April 14), the

20-year-old singer-songwriter will get Simp-sonified in a Disney+ special episode of The Simpsons arriving April 22, which will also star her brother and producer, FINNEAS, who tweeted that visiting Springfield was a “bucket list” item for him. A press release reportedly described the short, titled “When

Billie Met Lisa,” as telling the story of how animated jazz icon Lisa Simpson sponta-neously bumps into the Grammy-winning siblings.

“Lisa Simpson is discovered by chart-topping artists Billie Eilish and FINNEAS while searching for a quiet place to practice her saxophone,” it read. “Billie invites Lisa to her studio for a special jam session she’ll never forget.”

It’s only fair that Lisa should get a famous musical friend, as her brother Bart already got to hang out with The Weeknd when he guest starred as Orion Hughes in a March episode of the television series. In the episode (“Bart the Cool Kid”), Orion helped Bart learn how to be cool while Homer tried to convince other neighbor-hood dads to adopt The Weeknd’s charac-ter’s style.

The Simpsons has had quite a few musi-cian cameos over the course of its 33 sea-sons. Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, James Brown, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Tony Bennett, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran and many more have all crossed through Springfield at some point.

See what Billie Eilish looks like as a Simp-sons character in the poster for “When Billie Met Lisa” below.

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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:

2022 2021 Change

CD Sales 8,812,000 9,853,000 -10.6%

Vinyl Sales 9,835,000 10,063,000 -2.3%

Digital Sales 5,715,000 6,937,000 -17.6%

Other Sales 130,000 104,000 24.8%

Track Equivalent 4,366,000 5,375,000 -18.8%

Audio On-Demand Equivalent 209,220,000 184,604,000 13.3%

2022 2021 Change

Total On-Demand Streams 326,777,727,000 292,661,166,000 11.7%

Audio On-Demand Streams 286,407,832,000 253,880,962,000 12.8%

Digital Track Sales 43,655,000 53,748,000 -18.8%

Album Sales 24,491,000 26,956,000 -9.1%

Albums Consumption Units 238,076,000 216,935,000 9.7%

*All data measures U.S. activity as of the week ending April 7, 2022. All units counts are rounded to the nearest thousand.

TotalStreams

AudioOn-Demand

VideoOn-Demand

AlbumSales

DigitalAlbum Sales

DigitalTracks

Albums Consumption Units

ThisWeek* 24,419,358,000 21,468,952,000 2,950,405,000 1,825,000 433,000 3,049,000 17,827,000

LastWeek 24,211,094,000 21,237,142,000 2,973,952,000 1,836,000 417,000 3,027,000 17,662,000

Change 0.9% 1.1% -0.8% -0.6% 3.7% 0.7% 0.9%

This Week Last Year 22,012,454,000 19,150,321,000 2,862,132,000 2,147,000 515,000 3,967,000 16,494,000

Change 10.9% 12.1% 3.1% -15.0% -16.0% -23.2% 8.1%

40b

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140b

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1 #1 13 WK S LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

2 DAVE BAYLEY 3 DOJA CAT

TIE 4 HARRY STYLES TIE 4 KID HARPOON TIE 4 TYLER JOHNSON

7 LUKASZ GOTTWALD 8 ED SHEERAN 9 GREG KURSTIN 10 JOHNNY MCDAID 11 GUNNA 12 ASHLEY GORLEY 13 LIL DURK 14 SHANE MCANALLY 15 THE WEEKND 16 YAHRITZA MARTINEZ 17 HARDY 18 ADELE 19 OMER FEDI 20 ERIC CHURCH

TIE 21 ATL JACOB TIE 21 KODAK BLACK TIE 21 MAIK TIMMERMANN TIE 24 BEN MERRITT STENNIS TIE 24 MATT ROGERS

HOT 100 SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

5 WK S DR. LUKE 2 GREG KURSTIN 3 DAVE BAYLEY 4 MATTMAN & ROBIN

TIE 5 KID HARPOON TIE 5 TYLER JOHNSON

7 JOEY MOI 8 MIKE ELIZONDO 9 LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA 10 ATL JACOB 11 PETE NAPPI 12 CHARLIE PUTH 13 TRENT WILLMON 14 OMER FEDI 15 KOZ 16 VAUGHN OLIVER 17 OVY ON THE DRUMS 18 JAKKE ERIXSON 19 ZACH CROWELL 20 SHANE MCANALLY 21 BLAKE SLATKIN 22 PAUL DIGIOVANNI 23 EVAN BLAIR 24 CHOPSQUAD DJ

TIE 25 JON BELLION TIE 25 THE MONSTERS & STRANGERZ

HOT 100 PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 31 WK S ASHLEY GORLEY

2 ERIC CHURCH TIE 3 BEN MERRITT STENNIS TIE 3 MATT ROGERS

5 WALKER HAYES 6 SHANE MCANALLY 7 JESSE FRASURE 8 HARDY 9 BEN JOHNSON 10 ERNEST K

COUNTRY SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

62 WK S JOEY MOI 2 TRENT WILLMON 3 SHANE MCANALLY 4 ZACH CROWELL 5 PAUL DIGIOVANNI 6 DAVID FANNING 7 DANN HUFF 8 GREG KURSTIN 9 JAY JOYCE

TIE 10 JOE THIBODEAU TIE 10 WALKER HAYES

COUNTRY PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 8 WK S LIL DURK

2 GUNNA TIE 3 JASON “CHEESE” GOLDBERG TIE 3 YOUNGBOY NEVER BROKE AGAIN TIE 5 ATL JACOB TIE 5 KODAK BLACK TIE 5 MAIK TIMMERMANN

8 FUTURE 9 SZA 10 DOJA CAT

R&B/HIP-HOP SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

10 WK S ATL JACOB 2 DR. LUKE 3 VAUGHN OLIVER 4 WHEEZY 5 CHOPSQUAD DJ 6 PARKED UP 7 METRO BOOMIN 8 SHIZZI 9 PAPI YERR 10 D’MILE

R&B/HIP-HOP PRODUCERSTM

Page 24 of 26D A T A F O R W E E K O F 0 4 . 1 6 . 2 0 2 2

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 April 16, 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.

SON

GW

RITE

RS &

PRO

DU

CER

S

1 #1 5 WK S SZA

2 PHARRELL WILLIAMS TIE 3 AARON HORN TIE 3 AYNZLI JONES TIE 3 DOJA CAT TIE 3 JIDENNA MOBISSON TIE 3 LINDEN JAY TIE 3 YETI BEATS

9 TEMS TIE 10 CARTER LANG TIE 10 DYLAN PATRICE TIE 10 ROB BISEL TIE 10 THANKGOD4CODY

R&B SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

21 WK S D’MILE 2 SHIZZI

TIE 3 DYLAN GRAHAM TIE 3 RALPH TILLER TIE 5 AARON HORN TIE 5 AYNZLI JONES TIE 5 LINDEN JAY TIE 5 YETI BEATS

9 MIKE WOODS 10 PHARRELL WILLIAMS

R&B PRODUCERSTM

A P R .1 6

2 0 2 2

AIR

PLAY

/STR

EAM

ING

&SA

LES

DAT

A C

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PILE

D B

Y

Page 25 of 26

TIE 1 #1 28 WK S BERNIE TAUPIN

TIE 1 #1 28 WK S ELTON JOHN

TIE 1 #1 28 WK S NICK LITTLEMORE

TIE 1 #1 28 WK S PETER MAYES

TIE 1 #1 28 WK S SAM LITTLEMORE

TIE 6 AVA MAX TIE 6 CLAUDIA VALENTINA TIE 6 PABLO BOWMAN TIE 6 PETER RYCROFT TIE 6 TIESTO

DANCE/ELECTRONIC SONGWRITERSTMTIE 1 #1

2 WK S LOSTBOY TIE 1 #1

2 WK S TIESTO 3 ACRAZE

TIE 4 CHRIS THOMAS TIE 4 GUS DUDGEON TIE 4 NICK LITTLEMORE TIE 4 PETER MAYES TIE 4 SAM LITTLEMORE

9 LOST FREQUENCIES TIE 10 ALESSO TIE 10 SPACE PRIMATES

DANCE/ELECTRONIC PRODUCERSTM

SON

GW

RITE

RS &

PRO

DU

CER

S

1 #1 44 WK S DAVE BAYLEY

TIE 2 MACHINE GUN KELLY TIE 2 TRAVIS BARKER TIE 4 DAVE PITTENGER TIE 4 GAYLE TIE 4 SARA DAVIS

7 DAVE GROHL 8 SUZANNE VEGA

TIE 9 ELLE KING TIE 9 MARTIN JOHNSON

ROCK & ALTERNATIVE SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

29 WK S DAVE BAYLEY 2 MATTMAN & ROBIN 3 PETE NAPPI 4 TRAVIS BARKER 5 RICK RUBIN 6 FINNEAS 7 GIL NORTON 8 BOYWITHUKE 9 NICK LONG 10 FABIAN LANGER

ROCK & ALTERNATIVE PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 2 WK S YAHRITZA MARTINEZ

2 LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA 3 JUAN MOISES CARDENAS 4 OVY ON THE DRUMS 5 TAINY 6 EDEN MUNOZ

TIE 7 BECKY G TIE 7 ELENA ROSE TIE 7 KAROL G

10 MARCO ANTONIO SOLIS

LATIN SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

13 WK S OVY ON THE DRUMS 2 TAINY 3 SUBELO NEO 4 JIMMY HUMILDE 5 DADDY YANKEE 6 RODOLFO EDEN MUNOZ CANTU 7 MORA 8 MICHAEL BRUN 9 JESUS JAIME GONZALEZ TERRAZAS 10 JESUS TIRADO CASTANEDA

LATIN PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 4 WK S GUNNA

2 LIL DURK TIE 3 ATL JACOB TIE 3 KODAK BLACK TIE 3 MAIK TIMMERMANN

6 FUTURE 7 METRO BOOMIN 8 THERON THOMAS

TIE 9 JASON “CHEESE” GOLDBERG TIE 9 YOUNGBOY NEVER BROKE AGAIN

RAP SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

12 WK S ATL JACOB 2 DR. LUKE 3 VAUGHN OLIVER 4 CHOPSQUAD DJ 5 PARKED UP 6 METRO BOOMIN 7 ARTHUR MCARTHUR 8 PAPI YERR 9 RUSS

TIE 10 JUKE WONG TIE 10 WHEEZY

RAP PRODUCERSTM

AIR

PLAY

/STR

EAM

ING

&SA

LES

DAT

A C

OM

PILE

D B

Y

D A T A F O R W E E K O F 0 4 . 1 6 . 2 0 2 2

A P R .1 6

2 0 2 2

Page 26 of 26

1 #1 49 WK S DAVE BAYLEY

TIE 2 DAVE PITTENGER TIE 2 GAYLE TIE 2 SARA DAVIS

5 DAVE GROHL 6 BOYWITHUKE

TIE 7 BILLIE EILISH TIE 7 FINNEAS TIE 9 MACHINE GUN KELLY TIE 9 TRAVIS BARKER

ALTERNATIVE SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

34 WK S DAVE BAYLEY 2 MATTMAN & ROBIN 3 PETE NAPPI 4 TRAVIS BARKER 5 FINNEAS 6 GIL NORTON 7 BOYWITHUKE 8 OMER FEDI 9 RICK RUBIN 10 STEVEN SACCO

ALTERNATIVE PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 5 WK S DAVE GROHL

2 MATT BELLAMY 3 LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA 4 PAT SMEAR 5 GEORG “NATE MENDEL” RUTHENBERG

TIE 6 BRENT SMITH TIE 6 E-BASS

8 DAVE MUSTAINE TIE 9 A GHOUL WRITER TIE 9 FAT MAX GSUS

HARD ROCK SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

2 WK S GIL NORTON 2 E-BASS 3 MUSE 4 HOWARD BENSON

TIE 5 RONNIE RADKE TIE 5 TYLER SMYTH

7 KID ROCK 8 EVIL TWIN 9 STEVE SOPCHAK 10 JOSH WILBUR

HARD ROCK PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 15 WK S JEFF PARDO

2 BEN GLOVER 3 MATTHEW WEST 4 JEFF SOJKA 5 COLBY WEDGEWORTH 6 ETHAN HULSE 7 AJ PRUIS 8 BRANDON LAKE 9 DARREN MULLIGAN 10 MITCH WONG

CHRISTIAN SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

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

CHRISTIAN PRODUCERSTM

1 #1 42 WK S KANYE WEST

2 CHANDLER MOORE TIE 3 OJIVOLTA TIE 3 RAUL CUBINA

5 STEVEN FURTICK TIE 6 CHRIS BROWN TIE 6 NAOMI RAINE

8 JAHMAL GWIN 9 DANTE BOWE 10 DJ KHALIL

GOSPEL SONGWRITERSTM1 #1

59 WK S KANYE WEST TIE 2 JONATHAN JAY TIE 2 TONY BROWN

4 OJIVOLTA 5 BOOGZDABEAST 6 MIKE DEAN 7 DJ KHALIL 8 30ROC 9 BRYAN FOWLER 10 DEM JOINTZ

GOSPEL PRODUCERSTM

SON

GW

RITE

RS &

PRO

DU

CER

SA

IRPL

AY/S

TREA

MIN

G &

SALE

S D

ATA

CO

MPI

LED

BY

D A T A F O R W E E K O F 0 4 . 1 6 . 2 0 2 2

A P R .1 6

2 0 2 2