Spotify now has 172 million paid subscribers and 381 million monthly active users, an increase from last quarter.

Spotify continues to be the go-to music streaming service. Amazon Music and Apple Music trail far behind with paid subscribers. Spotify expects to have in excess of 400 million monthly active users, and over 177 million premium subscribers by the end of the year.

Because Spotify pays the majority of its revenue back to music labels, it couldn’t make a profit. But after years of losing money, the streaming music service is turning the corner, mainly because of its ad business.

Ownership of song catalogs gives the music labels big leverage in cutting deals with streaming companies. Spotify added content like podcasts that doesn’t that music labels don’t own which has drawn more listeners.

Defying critics, Adele’s “Easy On Me” is big at radio. Although it may not be as big as her previous hits, it fits nicely on radio. Radio has nothing else to play and it’s a competition free market for big sad ballads. Top 40 radio likes uptempo dance songs and slow heartbreak ballads. Adele fills the space.

Adele’s Easy On Me has been added to the largest number of radio stations ever. Either people really love the UK singer or there is a dire need for slow sappy ballads. Maybe it’s both, but I tend to the believe the latter. Lewis Capaldi had a massive radio hit with ballad “Someone You Loved” and Olivia Rodrigo with “Drivers License”.

Although “Easy On Me” didn’t debut at #1 like her previous hit, it’s still streaming well.

Wit politics being the driving force in America, it’s not surprising that “Easy On Me” was knocked off the number #1 spot on iTunes by the politically charged single “Let’s Go Brandon!” by Bryson Gray Tyson.

Poaching (stealing music acts from other parties) has always been common practice in the music biz. UMG just poached an artist from Columbia, and this isn’t a just any fish, it’s a whale.

BTS is ending its distribution deal with Sony Music’s Columbia and is headed to Universal Music Group.

UMG Sir Lucian Grainge and IGA boss John Janick have inked a deal with K-pop boyband BTS. The arrangement was struck via Bang Si-Hyuk-led Korean firm HYBE (fka Big Hit).

Scooter Braun, who sold his company Ithaca Holdings to HYBE in April, reportedly helped seal the deal using his relationship with Grainge and HYBE Global CEO Lenzo Yoon.

Ironically, Columbia’s Kid LAROI just split with Scooter’s management company just after 3 months. Did The Kid getta call from the boss?

Warner Music has snatched up The Walters after a bidding war among labels. The Chicago indie rock band released their first EP, Songs for Dads, and landed on Spotify’s U.S. Viral Top 50. Ironically, the band broke up a few year ago, but a resurgence on TikTok may have brought the band back together. The power of the Tok.

The band released two songs “Hunk Beach” and “I Want to Be Good”, and their song “I Love You So” went viral on TikTok and has garnered over 15,000,000 views on YouTube.

The band has performed at Chicago venues such as the Metro, House of Blues, Riot Fest Chicago, and the Lollapalooza Festival.

It’s been 5 years since Adele released an album and the world has changed.

Adele created her capital in the pre-streaming era. Social media was barely a thing. The UK singer was known for selling large amounts of CD’s and downloads. Adele’s ’25’ sold more copies than any other album in 2016.

Will Adele have the same impact? That’s the unknown keeping execs awake at night. We’ve entered into a different atmosphere where TikTok dominates with a distracted public.

To keep the public engaged, the execs need to sell Adele around the clock. They’ll have to sell the data to tell the Adele story- “Adele opens up with biggest streaming numbers of 2021”. “The first female artist to…”

The world has changed and there is a whole generation that never heard of Adele. Rap is the dominant genre, TikTok has dominated the music space, and… politics.

“It’s easier for her to look like a failure,” says Mark Mulligan, music-industry analyst at Midia Research.

I’m not sure what failure would look like today. If it’s dropping out of Spotify’s top 10 within a week or so, the label will make sure that doesn’t happen. Maybe failure today is not reaching world domination status which Olivia Rodrigo has right now. If that’s the benchmark of success, Adele may come up short.

While Adele generated massive amount of talk in the 2010’s, that environment doesn’t exist today. As popular as Olivia Rodrigo is now, she hasn’t generated the same mindshare as Adele at her peak.

Adele is known for her big sappy ballads. A teen today twerking to WAP on TikTok is conditioned for a two minute beat, not a 3 minute piano ballad.

Although top 40 radio likes uptempo tunes, they’ll play Adele. She has brand power and radio won’t resist her despite what some critics say.

Adele could create a much needed change to the music landscape. A fresh of breath air that will inspire a new crop of artists.