Coachella Pays Less Than You Think

The trend of security guards stealing the show continued at Coachella last weekend. During Frank Ocean’s set a security guard turned hype man was caught feeling himself on the big screen. While thousands of others were left disappointed and confused. More on that below, in other news today:

• Billboard Hot 100 & album sales 📈 

• Did Frank Ocean want to perform at Coachella? 🤔 

• Lil Durk wants SZA on his new album ❗️ 

• Highlights of Lil Yachty & Kai Cenat’s stream 🎮️ 

• Artists are paid less than you think for Coachella 💰️ 

• Up Your Aux: Ski Mask & Aminé 🎵 

• Win a pair of Jordan 3 White Cement sneakers 💧 

• Industry Insights

Hot 100 Chart & Streams

The above chart shows Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking, as of today, and the corresponding song streams for the week of April 7-13th as reported by Hits Double Daily (streaming weeks follow a Friday to Thursday schedule).

Hot 100 ranks songs based on a combination of streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and sales data—all measured by Luminate. The formula to determine their ranking is unknown but the stream data provides insight into how much of a song’s rank is attributed to radio airplay and sales.

Drake’s “Search & Rescue” debuts at #2 on the Hot 100 with over 30 million streams in its first week. Toosii’s “Favorite Song” holds steady at #14 and NLE Choppa’s “Slut Me Out” makes moves jumping from #43 to #28 this week.

Album Sales

It was a good opening week for NF and Daniel Caesar with both artists achieving higher first-week sales than previous albums. NF’s HOPE, debuts at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart with 122K album equivalent units and Daniel Caesar’s Never Enough opens at #14 with 32K, per Hits Double Daily.

Did Frank Ocean Want to Be at Coachella?

The most highly-anticipated headliner for Coachella this year was undoubtedly Frank Ocean. Videos of his rehearsal emerged last week building more anticipation for what was ultimately considered a letdown by many. Regardless of the criticism, the performance boosted Frank’s streams landing almost 50 of the top 100 spots on Spotify’s U.S. trending songs on Monday. Songs like “Futura Free” and “Facebook Story” saw a +300% increase in streams on the platform.

First, it was announced that his set would not be livestreamed on YouTube for fans at home. Then, he addressed rumors of a new album and said there isn’t one right now but there’s not not one in the future—how very Playboi Carti of him.

Finally, rumors are circulating as to what went wrong before his performance on Sunday and it all boils down to the original performance being scrapped for the DIY WTF version of what was witnessed on someone’s low-quality Instagram live.

How was the performance?

The set started 57 minutes after its advertised start time and when Frank finally did appear to perform “Novacane”, the scaffolding and group of people walking around onstage made it impossible for festivalgoers to get a clear view of him.

The Where’s Frank game continued for the rest of his set and there were moments of greatness, of course, but the awkward transitions and pauses between songs seemed less intentional and artistic and more disorganized and unmethodical. In an uncharacteristically long speech, he spoke about his late brother Ryan (who tragically died in a car accident in 2020) and his memories of enjoying Coachella with him.

“My brother and I came to this festival a lot. One of my favorite memories was watching Rae Sremmurd with my brother and Taco [Bennett], just dancing to their music. I know he would’ve been so excited to be here with all of us,” he said to the audience in this video.

The Twitter Tea ☕️ 

It’s possible that Frank’s performance was a result of an artist (and person) not ready to perform in public but obliged to anyways. Grief is a personal and difficult thing to overcome, so take the following with a bit of compassion.

The Festive Owl broke the news on Twitter yesterday that Frank’s set originally had an elaborate ice rink with skaters that would skate around him and his band during the performance. Sources later confirmed bits of the story to TMZ but with a different explanation for the last-minute change.

The Festive Owl Says:

• The pre-approved production was scrapped at the last minute by Frank

• The doors for Sunday were already open when this decision was made

• Coachella had to deconstruct the rink and put together, as best they could, the stage that was seen on Sunday

• This is what delayed the start time

• If the changes weren’t made, he wouldn’t perform

• He also pulled the plug on the livesteam (not YouTube or Coachella)

• The people walking around at the beginning of his set were the ice skaters

Their sources also said, “It just didn’t seem like he wanted to be there but was obligated to be. Everything (including him) fell apart last minute.”

What did TMZ say?

Production was changed at the last minute to adjust for an ankle injury Frank sustained while riding his bike on Coachella’s grounds in the week leading up to the festival. Apparently, the injury was “serious enough for doctors to advise Frank’s production be changed.”

Lil Durk Wants SZA on His New Album

Lil Durk has a message for SZA and decided on the PSA format of IG stories, rather than the privacy of DMs, to get her attention. He’s been chaotically posting about his new album and each new story makes me skeptical about the validity of what he’s saying but here’s the latest update.

“SZA the goat, ya’ll better not sleep or get blind. Every female, every car, every sale—she really her,” Lil Durk posted last week giving the R&B singer her flowers.

“I need her on my album ASAP, a hit, not a regular song. Go tag SZA blow her shit down, tell her Smurk need her,” he continued asking fans to amplify his request.

The IG story rant doesn’t stop there, he said his album is done “without half the help” he’s been asking for. Earlier this month, he hinted at a J. Cole feature on the album during an interview at Cole’s Dreamville festival. His new album, The Voice 2.0, doesn’t have a release date yet but the speculation is that it will drop later this year.

Everything You Missed From Lil Yachty x Kai Cenat’s Stream

There’s a reason Kai Cenat broke the record for most Twitch subscribers—consistency and content. His special guests, particularly rappers, make for some of his most entertaining streams by giving viewers a POV otherwise inaccessible through traditional media. I’ve seen G Herbo attempt the sturdy dance, Chrisean Rock break Kai’s wall in a Blueface rage, and Drake bet $121K on 21 Savage winning a game of NBA 2K.

Lil Yachty’s stream was no exception, despite having 10 fewer cups of coffee energy than Kai, check out the highlight reel below.

Yachty plays an unreleased Country song

If you liked Yachty’s experimental Let’s Start Here. album then you’ll probably like this song. It sounds like he took the Wock to Nashville with acoustic guitar and distorted vocals. Watch the video on Twitter here.

Kai asks Yachty about writing “Act Up” with City Girls

In an extremely mature fashion, Kai asks, “So what was your thinking process with all that freak shit?” to which Yachty replied, “I was just trying to think like what would a woman think is fire to be screaming in the club?” Watch the clip to see Kai recite the lyrics like a poem.

Yachty roasts the sneakers Twitch gifted Kai

“What you wear this to take out the trash or something?” is how I’ll be telling my friends I don’t like their fits from now on. Watch Yachty’s full sneaker review on Twitter here.

Yachty plays his remix of Young Nudy and 21 Savage’s “EA”

This remix goes so hard, if you liked rap Yachty more than Purple Floyd Yachty—this is for you.

Yachty spills the tea on Drake’s bathrooms

You’ve probably seen the headline that Drake’s toilets play Tupac’s diss track “Hit ‘Em Up”. Yachty said the lyrics, “That’s why I f*cked your bitch your fat motherf*cker,” get annoying when you’re trying to take a shit because it keeps looping. “You’re taking a shit in his crib?!” Kai asks shocked and Yachty replies, “I’m taking several—so many shits in his crib.”

Artists are Paid Less Than You Think to Perform at Coachella

Much like the Super Bowl, securing a coveted spot to perform at Coachella is less about the bag and more about the opportunity. In the economy of music festivals, Coachella is the Mecca, they have limited spots available on their lineup (low supply) and an abundance of artists willing to fill those slots (high demand).

Unlike the law of demand and supply, headliners don’t pay more for a slot but they do take a pay cut compared to what they could make per night on tour. Let’s break down why.

The Coachella Origin story

The first-ever Coachella was announced a few days after the disastrous and chaotic Woodstock festival of 1999. It was a 2-day event and 25,000 tickets were sold for $50 a ticket.

If you’re curious about what that price would be today adjusted for inflation it’s $84.40—yesterday’s price is not today’s starting price of $549 per ticket. In all fairness, it wasn’t a viable price point as the festival had $1 million in losses the first year and didn’t return until 2001.

What’s remarkable is that Coachella was birthed from the ashes of Woodstock, filling a gap in the market and pop culture zeitgeist at the perfect time. It started as an alternative rock meetup and evolved into a medley of genres reflective of mainstream culture.

Coachella positioned itself as the festival to attend, people would buy tickets without knowing the lineup if they could thanks to the celebrity co-signs and influencer Olympics in the 2010s that boosted brand awareness and fomo amongst the general public.

Other festivals usually rely on the power of their lineup to sell tickets. Have you ever wanted to attend a Rolling Loud, Lollapalooza, or Governors Ball simply for the vibes or the artists performing?

What’s the paycheque? 💰️ 

Trapital’s latest podcast shed light on the dollars behind the lineup. The biggest headliners (3 per year) have gotten $4 million per weekend. This year that’s Bad Bunny, Blackpink, and Frank Ocean although sources say Bad Bunny got $5 million. The artists on the second row get $750,000 per weekend which applies to Metro Boomin, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Kali Uchis, Burna Boy, and more this year.

The Coachella bag is still more than what artists receive for performing at the Super Bowl halftime show but less than what a big artist can make in a night on their own. Take SZA for example, her recent SOS tour grossed nearly $35 million for an average of $1.9 million per show. She would likely be a tier 2 headliner this year and the $750,000 cheque is less than half of what she made on tour.

Artists take the pay cut because Coachella gives them exposure to a wide range of people outside their main audience with the possibility of converting them into fans. For some, it’s the notoriety of performing at Coachella that helps boost their career.

In 2018, Cardi B spent more on her production than the $70,000 she was paid for Coachella but she did it as an investment and it paid off—4 years later, she gets paid $1 million for a private show.

Happy Birthday to Ski Mask the Slump God & Aminé

In celebration of the birthdays of two colorful rappers, Ski Mask the Slump God and Aminé, Up Your Aux with 6 of their best lesser-known tracks.

1. “ADMIT IT” by Ski Mask (listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

2. “U and I” by Ski Mask (listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

3. “Foot Fungus” by Ski Mask (listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

4. “Compensating” by Aminé ft. Young Thug (listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

5. “Pressure In My Palms” by Aminé ft. slowthai, Vince Staples (listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

6. “Woodlawn” by Aminé (listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

• NPR quits Twitter over “government-funded” label. The popular music media account says the label is intended to undermine its credibility.

• Tyler, the Creator achieves never before seen Billboard chart milestone. He’s the first artist to have a No. 1 album on the R&B and Hip-Hop chart for 3 consecutive years.

• Viral AI-generated Drake and The Weekend song gets pulled from streaming platforms. “The Heart on My Sleeve” deep fake sees the two singers reminisce over exes.

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