Billboard Magazine

Written for music industry professionals and fans. Contents provide news, reviews and statistics for all genres of music, including radio play, music video, related internet activity and retail updates.

Billboard

Zimmerman’s ‘Fall’ Flies Rookie Flag At Country

When Music Makes Itself: The Debate Over AI • The technology is already transforming song creation. Should producers be worried?

Making Music And Generating Buzz • These five AI music startups are changing how songs are made and who’s making them

Playlists Lose Their Punch • Listeners are turning to TikTok and other sources for music discovery

MUSIC’S TOP GLOBAL EARNERS • Taylor Swift tops the list with massive sales and streaming numbers that trump The Rolling Stones’ tour take-home

RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION? • Upbeat third-quarter results defied a mostly bleak earnings season for other sectors

From The Desks Of… Ben Kline And Cris Lacy • CO-PRESIDENTS, WARNER MUSIC NASHVILLE

THE YEAR IN MUSIC 2022 • After years of universal uncertainty, some of the music industry’s biggest hallmarks roared back in 2022, including chart-topping superstar releases, sold-out stadium treks, soundtrack smashes from best-selling films and familiar melodies making major returns

THE RETURN OF THE MEGASTAR • Pop’s larger-than-life personalities came out to play in 2022 — and all of them found space to thrive

THE RETURN OF RECORD-BREAKING VINYL • High demand for major releases powered another massive year for the format

‘POLISHING’UP REAL NICE • Taylor Swift has spent over a decade as a superstar with 11 No. 1 albums, but with the release of her new studio album, Midnights, she shattered several Billboard chart records. Here are her most impressive feats.

GHOST • With fifth album IMPERA, the Swedish hard rockers logged the biggest sales week for a hard rock album on vinyl since Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy in 1994. Loma Vista Recordings’ senior director of marketing, Todd Netter, explains how.

THE RETURN OF TOURING (AND ITS PROBLEMS, OLD AND NEW)

DANCEFLOOR REVIVAL • How clubs on each coast have pivoted to keep afloat as the beat kicked back in

JEAN DAWSON • After being unable to tour behind his 2020 debut album, the indie R&B artist Jean Dawson embarked on his first headlining tour this year with his second full-length, Chaos Now, which hit No. 35 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart

THE RETURN OF THE CHART-CONQUERING SAMPLE

MALIBU BABIE

ROGÉT CHAHAYED

THE RETURN OF THE SOUNDTRACK SMASH • As movie lovers ventured back into theaters, songs from films soared to the top of the pop charts — and brought some long-absent artists with them

SOUNDTRACK SMASHES BY THE NUMBERS

STRANGER THINGS

THE RETURN OF POP-PUNK’S PIONEERS

AVRIL LAVIGNE • The pop-punk princess hit the road this year with Machine Gun Kelly, followed by a headlining trek and festival gigs

THE NO.1s YEAR OF THE BUNNY • With over a quarter-billion grossed on the road and one of the biggest albums of the last decade, Bad Bunny became Billboard’s top artist of 2022 — singing in Spanish and redefining global stardom

OLD-SCHOOL RENALSSANCE • And that’s what happened. The first time I saw people connect with my songs, that was big. The first time I sang in front of 50, 60, 90 people, I felt big. I was happy. So these stadiums, I enjoy them in the same way I enjoyed singing in Mayagüez for 100 people, in Santurce for 70. I swear to you, if I had to live my life singing for 100 people every weekend, I would have been perfectly happy with that. Real.

THE SECRET SAUCE • With a session musician’s patience and intuition, Greg Kurstin — the Hot 100’s top producer of the year — elicits the best work from music’s biggest stars...