From the Coachella headliner shuffle to Pink Floyd’s new song, we’ve gathered the biggest stories from across the industry.
If you’re reading this—Congratulations! You’ve made it through the first full week of April 2022. Spring is officially underway, and the industry is transitioning into summer tour season. That might seem a bit premature, but with ticket sales at an all-time high and artists ready to hit the road, live performances are the talk of every meeting. Will COVID let us have a great summer? Only time will tell.
We cannot ease your workload or give you more hours in the day, but we can help you stay informed. Below you’ll find the biggest stories of the week, all covered by the best outlets in tech and entertainment. Click around, learn what’s happening, and use the weekend to prepare for the end of the month.
But let’s be honest. There is no way we can hope to cover everything that happens. If you see a headline we missed that people need to know, please do not hesitate to send james@haulix.com an email. We’ll include your links in the next update.
The Biggest Stories In Music This Week
Bad Bunny Breaks Yet Another Record
When Bad Bunny sets out to do something, he does it with the authenticity and passion he has for his artistry. In doing so, he has become a global icon who continues to elevate his stardom by pushing his creativity and breaking barriers with it. Well, his efforts are continuing to pay off, especially now thathis recent 35-date El Último Tour Del Mundo 2022 has officially become the highest-grossing tour by a Latine artist, according to Billboard Boxscore ’s over three-decade history of recording said numbers.
According to figures reported by Billboard Boxscore, El Último Tour Del Mundo’s 35 shows grossed $116.8 million and sold 575,000 tickets. “That breaks down to $3.3 million and 16,400 tickets per night, or $4.7 million and more than 23,000 tickets in each market,” the publication reported. It overrode Luis Miguel’s earnings of $101 million in 2018-2019. Moreover, but in conversation with Bad Bunny’s agent Jbeau Lewis, Lewis told Billboard that “according to Ticketmaster, it was the third-highest sales day for any tour of all time, and would likely have broken the record had there been more dates to add.” Incredible, right?
The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia to headline Coachella after Ye drops out
After Kanye West dropped out of Coachella less than two weeks ahead of his scheduled performance, the festival has confirmed The Weeknd will join Swedish House Mafia to fill the headliner slot.
The Swedish three-piece and The Weeknd—who collaborated last year on “Moth to a Flame”—will close out the festival on Sunday. Swedish House Mafia were already set to play the festival, as the lineup announcement in January showed, but they had no specific date listed for their performance. Some suggested, as Variety did, that their position on the poster was in case Ye decided to drop out.
Starting next month, some customers of Amazon’s unlimited streaming music services will be paying more.
The Amazon Music Unlimited individual plan for Prime members is increasing from $7.99 to $8.99 per month, or from $79 to $89 per year. In addition, the Amazon Music Unlimited single-device plan (which allows one designated Echo or Fire TV to stream music) is going up by a dollar, rising from $3.99 to $4.99 per month. The updated pricing starts on May 5.
The ecommerce giant is raising the prices “To help us bring you even more content and features,” Amazon said in a customer notice on its site.
Pink Floyd Releases First New Song in 28 Years
This week Pink Floyd release their first newly created music since 1994’s The Division Bell when they release their new single and video for Hey Hey Rise Up with all proceeds going to Ukraine Humanitarian Relief.
The new single sees David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined by long time Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards and features vocals from Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox.
The song, which was recorded last week in David Gilmour’s barn, uses Khlyvnyuk’s vocals from an Instagram post of him singing Ukrainian WWI protest song The Red Viburnum In The Meadow in an empty Sofiyskaya Square in Kyiv. The title of the Pink Floyd track is taken from the last line of the song which translates as ‘Hey Hey Rise up and rejoice’.
South Korea is Building An Arena Dedicated To K-Pop
Earlier this week, South Korean internet company Kakao and the Seoul Metropolitan Government put forward plans to construct an entirely new arena dedicated to K-Pop.
Dubbed the Seoul Arena, the stadium is scheduled to be built in the Chang-dong, Dobong-gu area and is expected to be complete by October 2025. The ground breaking ceremony will be hosted in June after the final implementation plans are approved. The arena will host approximately 18,000 seats, with a capacity of 28,000 people for standing performances. A medium-sized performance venue that seats 7,000, as well as a movie theater and other commercial facilities, are to be included in the final blueprint.
