Music Industry News and Innuendo Store: https://teapawt.net/t.co/7RI1JkIs3p | IG: hitsdd
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CHART FINAL: Reprise’s My Chemical Romance takes the #1 spot on this Halloween-adjacent iteration of the HITS Top 50 chart with the 20th anniversary edition of their seminal set The Black Parade. The retooled alternative gem nets 70k in its opening frame, nearly 60k of that in pure sales.
The biggest debut is Heavy Is the Crown (APESHIT/Mass Appeal/EMPIRE), a collaborative effort by hip-hop luminaries Anderson .Paak and Cordae, which amasses a princely 30k, good for a Top 10 coronet.
Contemporary Christian troubadour Josiah Queen, meanwhile, kneels at #16 with Damascus Road (Capitol CMG).
BLACKPINK member LISA (LLOUD Co./RCA) lands at #36 in her first frame, saying “SaWaDiKa” to nearly 18k.
This week sees another re-entry by a 20th anniversary reissue, as a refurbished version of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black (Island) peeks into the Top 50.
Spotify has targeted a Q1 2027 launch for its AI-powered remix and cover tool, potentially unveiling it around February's Grammy Awards, per the FT.
Already secured: UMG, Merlin and, as of last week, Believe. Sony and Warner are still under negotiation.
Spotify is considering charging an additional $4-5 a month.
Getting artists on board may prove trickier than getting their labels to sign. The pitch: a revenue opportunity rather than an existential threat.
SZA (booked by THE•TEAM) will occupy the final prime position on the Coachella poster. CAA's Tame Impala and Dua Lipa were locked as two of the three headliners for the 2027 edition.
The annual Goldenvoice behemoth will take place April 9-11 and 16-18 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Tickets have been sold out since May.
SZA has been off-cycle since wrapping the massive Grand National tour with Kendrick Lamar last year and has made only a handful of live appearances since then.
This will be Dua Lipa's first full, solo set at the fete, following a 2017 guest appearance with Martin Garrix.
Universal Music Group saw subscription revenue growth accelerate and underlying profitability improve in the third quarter. Revenue reached €3.39b, up 11.7% year over year in constant currency.
Recorded Music subscription revenue rose 19.2% in constant currency, or 9.5% excluding Downtown. That compares with 16.6% growth in Q2, or 6.7% excluding Downtown.
Adjusted EBITDA margin excluding Downtown expanded 0.4 percentage points to 22.4%, following a 1.3-point decline in Q2.
Physical revenue jumped 17.4%, with gains across North America, Japan and Europe and in both frontline and catalog.
“The industry is healthy and growing, and we will keep evolving from a position of strength.” —Sir Lucian Grainge
Noah Kahan is sticking with stadiums for The Last of the Bugs, and returning to Boston's Fenway Park for four more shows in late May and early June after setting a new record with four sellouts on consecutive nights there last summer.
The Live Nation run will begin April 24 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia, which has hosted only a handful of concerts since 2013.
The European itinerary kicks off July 1 in Groningen, Holland, and includes three previously announced nights at London's Wembley Stadium. These will be the singer-songwriter's first stadium shows outside North America.
The 2026 performances supporting his hit Mercury album The Great Divide have been grossing about $7m per night.
ON THE COVER: Harry Styles
HITS’ Live100 cover model, Harry Styles, has been smashing all manner of records with his sold-out residency tour, which has included an astounding 30 dates at Madison Square Garden, 10 at Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam and 12 at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Columbia’s British superstar, who’s managed by Jeffrey Azoff at Full Stop and booked for live by CAA’s Mitch Rose, will transition his Live Nation-touted Together, Together trek into a (so far) 40-date stadium tour through North America, Europe and the U.K. in 2027.
The fans are in a froth, the Grammy buzz is blasting and everything’s coming Together—though this cover is one stage Harry would love to skip.
📷 Anthony Pham
CHART PREVIEW: Warner’s My Chemical Romance leads the chart parade at midweek.
The 20th anniversary edition of The Black Parade is on track for 65k in activity, 56k of that in pure sales, giving the alternative troupe a slim 1k edge over Interscope’s Olivia Rodrigo, who is currently holding at 64k (predominantly from streams) with you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. If the Parade ultimately out-marches the girl, it’ll be MCR’s first #1.
Elsewhere, Anderson .Paak and Cordae are projected to debut at #8 with joint set Heavy Is the Crown (APESHIT/Mass Appeal/EMPIRE), and devout troubadour Josiah Queen eyes a Top 20 bow for Damascus Road (Capitol CMG).
Temper City is taking its nearly billion-streaming breakthrough hit out for a spin.
The Los Angeles trio, which signed to Interscope in August but has only ever played a handful of live dates, will launch The Self Aware Tour on March 9 at San Francisco’s Independent.
The tour follows the runaway success of “Self Aware,” which has amassed more than 930m streams and spent nine weeks at #1 on Mediabase’s Alternative chart.
JAŸ-Z is (now officially) the halftime headliner of Super Bowl LXI, slated for Valentine's Day at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Roger Goodell's one request: "that JAŸ-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him."
The booking, announced during Monday Night Football, caps a valedictory phase in the artist-mogul's storied career. It's Roc Nation's eighth time booking the Super Bowl.
Hova: "Thirty years of music, work and culture on the world's biggest stage."
New Release Projections: My Chemical Romance’s 20th anniversary edition of The Black Parade (Warner) is heading toward full week activity of 60-65k.
This appears initially to be in the same range as Interscope’s Olivia Rodrigo who topped last week’s chart and sets up a potential battle for #1.
Meanwhile, Anderson .Paak & Cordae (APESHIT/Mass Appeal/Empire) target the top 10 with an opening of 33-38k.
CHART FINAL: Four months after its release, Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love (Interscope) is back in the #1 spot, no doubt levitated by O-Rod’s fun-and-games duet with Chappell Roan on the recently released “expectations (remix).” Something tells us this project may have legs.
The week’s biggest debut by a country mile, Zach Bryan’s Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs (Warner), notches a tidy 63k thanks to killer streams on multiple tracks, most notably “Lies,” Zach’s smoky, sad duet with Lana Del Rey.
Probably because her new single, “Housewife,” is now the biggest dang song in the world, RCA’s Tate McRae sees a 35% jump for her last album, So Close to What, which vaults #36-19.
The week’s other significant debuts include Dopamine Chamber by XL’s rock favorites Fontaines D.C. (nearly 23k, good for #18); Hyperdrive, by K-poppers PLAVE (VLAST), and Ashe’s The Girl of Your Dreams (Atlantic), which land at #27 and #28 with about 20k apiece; and Lucki’s Last Laugh [archive tape] (EMPIRE), alighting at #36 with 17k.
Start your sobbing: John Mayer is getting into the label business, launching Sob Rock Records through a partnership with Mercury Records—and teeing up his first solo single in five years in the process.
Friday will see the arrival of “Tom and Jerry,” Mayer’s first new song since 2021’s gold-certified Sob Rock.
“The path from creative vision to execution has never been easier or more rewarding,” said Mayer. “I feel very inspired, and I’m excited for what’s to come.”
Mercury Chairman and CEO Tyler Arnold welcomed the seven-time Grammy winner to the label, calling Mayer “one of the greatest artists of all time.”
For its part, HITS sobs a little every day.
Spotify keeps finding new ears—and more ways to monetize them. The streaming giant added 6m premium subscribers in Q3, bringing its paying customer base to 306m.
Monthly active users climbed to 788 million, up 11% year over year.
Revenue for the quarter reached €5b, up 16% year over year in reported terms; operating income rose to €672m, up from €582 million the previous year.
Subscriber gains in every region, with key performance indicators meeting or exceeding guidance.
Looking ahead, the Swedes forecast Q4 operating income of €820m and revenue of €5.2b and change, with premium subs expected to reach 316m.
Kacey Musgraves is taking Middle of Nowhere even farther south of the border: Middle of Nowhere Vol. 2: Tex Mex Tapes, a 16-track collection arriving Jan. 15 on Lost Highway.
Four tracks are sung entirely in Spanish, including a newly recorded version of Middle of Nowhere’s “Uncertain, TX” featuring Mexican Norteño group Intocable.
Two tracks, “Weekend in Texas” and Musgraves’ rendition of Norteño classic “Mi Tesoro,” arrive Thursday at midnight ET.
It expands on its predecessor’s eclectic exploration of solitude and contentment through the musical and cultural connections between Texas and Mexico.
