CEO Daniel Ek announced that Spotify grew to 248 million monthly average users in the last three months. Spotify forecast it would end 2019 with 255 million to 270 million monthly active users.

“For the eighth consecutive quarter, free cash flow was positive. We continue to see exponential growth in podcast hours streamed (up approximately 39% Q/Q) and early indications that podcast engagement is driving a virtuous cycle of increased overall engagement and significantly increased conversion of free to paid users.”

Lewis Capaldi scored his first No. 1 with Someone You Loved.

“I have no clue why this piano ballad has done what it’s done,” said Capaldi. “I never thought we were writing a big song here. I just wrote a song and, thankfully, people seemed to like it.”

“I feel like America’s sweetheart, at least for a moment,” Capaldi told Billboard. “I feel like I’m the sweetest heart in all of the US of A.” “I feel like I’m a wrestler, and I’m just walking out [to the ring] and there’s an American flag, and I’m saying, ‘USA! USA!’ That’s what I feel like, a wrestler.”

The 23-year-old, who still lives with his parents, added that breaking the US meant, “I’ll be able to pay the rent for the next few months!”

Kanye West’s new album Jesus Is King released via (G.O.O.D/Def Jam) is looking to top the charts. According to sources the album could move 250,00 units by October 31st. In fact, 9 songs off the album are in the top 10 U.S. Spotify Streaming Chart. Kanye’s IMAX short film ‘Jesus Is King’ is doing quite well – with a limited release it generated $862,000 in its opening weekend. Kanye has a 24 hour press cycle around his new offering which is quite miraculous.

In a rare interview with The Guardian – Swedish songwriter Max Martin who has worked with Britney, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande says we should be ‘grateful’ that pop stars allow their lives to ‘fall apart’ for the job.

Max rarely does interviews and he notes, “I just like to stay in the background as much as possible.”

“I think we all should be grateful [to the artists],” he says.

“It’s easy for us to say that they become these rich, spoilt divas – and I’m not talking about Britney specifically, just in general – but we forget that these artists go out into the world and work and tour and become super-famous for our enjoyment. And then we watch their lives fall apart in front of our eyes for doing something amazing.”

He sighs. “I’m so thankful that someone actually still wants that job. I’ve seen it many many times, what fame does. And it goes back to why I don’t do interviews. Especially now with social media: our lives are on display all the time and when you’re famous it’s on a whole other level. We’re not made to be that famous, it’s not normal. It’s not in our DNA.”

Selena Gomez rolled out new singles but the fact that the new videos for the tracks were shot on the iPhone 11 Pro is receiving more press than the songs themselves.

The reality is that the Selena videos were shot by director Sophie Muller and would be very difficult to replicate by the masses with iPhones. These videos are typically shot on iPhone rigs that include expensive lenses and stabilizers. I won’t argue that the Selena videos are closer to reality being that Sophie Muller kept the shoot pretty simple and it’s more honest than the previous Shot on iPhone” ads.

Peta Pixel notes, “As you can see from the behind the scenes video below by Hunter Simmons, the video seems to be captured on an iPhone 11 Pro with no additional lensing. And while the phone is no doubt sitting under some very expensive cinema lighting—and it’s definitely sitting atop a fluid head and fancy stabilizer arm—the setup and the results are far from the iPhone-on-a-gimbal-with-a-cinema-lens-hanging-out-of-a-car shots in the Bentley ad above. The camera moves in the video are pretty much limited to moving in and out, with some post-processing done to layer other shots onto the original. Despite coming from a well-known music video director, the result comes off simple and straight-forward enough that someone could recreate with their own phone at home… which may have been the point”.