Colombian singer/rapper Ryan Castro channeled a candid rendition of Héctor Lavoe’s timeless salsa song “El Cantante,” appropriately titled “El Cantante del Ghetto” at the Latin American Music Awards 2024. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Sporting a red, snazzy suit with bold glasses and cornrows, the Medellín native showed off his vocal prowess on his heartbreak tribute song. “Loves like yours can’t be bought, they can’t be compared, they can’t be known/ If I gave my all to make this relationship last/ Look me in the face and tell me you don’t know me,” he crooned against blaring horns a festive rhythm section, enlivening the crowed in attendance, and this viewer. The song is the first single of his upcoming album, set for release May 9th. The song was a timely choice, especially considering that the original 1978 classic was inducted into the National Recording Registry this year, the song that became emblematic at the height of the 1970s New York City salsa era. The 2024 Latin American Music Awards took place Thursday, April 25, live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas via Univision. Hitmakers Feid and Peso Pluma lead this year’s list of nominations with 12 nods each. The Colombian singer and Mexican star, who are up for the coveted artist of the year award and album of the year award, are followed by top nominees Bad Bunny (11), Grupo Frontera (11), Karol G (9), Shakira (9), Eslabon Armado (8) and Fuerza Regida (8).  Thalia, Becky G, Alejandra Espinoza and Carlos Ponce co-hosed the award ceremony that presented in a combination of English and Spanish, marking the first time any major U.S. award show featured a bilingual broadcast.

“It” couple Jay Wheeler and Zhamira Zambrano took center stage to deliver a swoon-worthy performance at the 2024 Latin American Music Awards on Thursday (April 25). Totally matching in all-black outfits, Zambrano in a slick tube-top long dress and Wheeler in an all-leather ensemble, the lovebirds performed “Extrañándote” accompanied by a live orchestra for a […]

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. The 2024 NBA finals along with some select playoff games will be aired exclusively on the ABC channel this season and there are a few ways to watch everything online. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Besides airing the NBA, NHL and baseball games, ABC is home to hit reality shows and sitcoms such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Abbott Elementary, Dancing With the Stars and Grey’s Anatomy. If you’ve recently cut the cord, there are still affordable streaming options to livestream the basketball games and more ABC originals online without cable. Live TV streamers are an affordable option to replace your cable bill, with most options offering packages for less than $100 a month. Most of the streaming platforms that include ABC have free trials and promos going on, which means you could watch the NBA playoffs on ABC for free. You’ll also be able to watch dozens of TV channels, giving you instant access to live sports, drama, comedies and reality series from home. Below ShopBillboard breaks down the current deals and offers available to watch ABC online without cable. How to Watch ABC Without a TV Provider Don’t have cable? You can watch ABC through an HD antenna like one of these options here from Amazon. Another option that’ll give you access to watch ABC without cable is Hulu + Live TV. A subscription gets you more than 95 live TV channels such as ABC, to watch live sports, TV series and specials whenever you want. You also get access to the entire Hulu on-demand library (including select ABC content available to watch the day after it airs). Don’t have a Hulu + Live TV subscription? Right now, the streamer is offering a rare free trial that’ll get you your first three days free. Once the free trial is over, you’ll be charged the regular subscription fee of $77 a month. For even more content options, Hulu + Live TV includes a subscription both Disney+ and ESPN+, which will give you access to more sports coverage and ESPN exclusive content. How to Watch ABC Online Without Cable for Free There are a few more live TV streamers that will let you watch ABC online for free or for a discounted price. Check below to find the right option for your viewing needs. DirecTV Stream DirecTV Stream is giving new users a five-day free trial when you sign up for one of the four packages offered. Every package includes ABC to let you livestream the NBA playoffs and more from your couch or smart device. The streamer is also offering additional savings of $30 when you combine any of its packages with a “Sports Pack.” The cheapest option is the Entertainment + Sports Pack, which is discounted to $85 (reg. $95) for the first three months. You’ll have access to ABC to watch the NBA finals and playoff games leading up to the big night as well as local channels, unlimited DVR storage and the ability to stream on three devices simultaneously. Once the three months are up you’ll be charged the subscription price based on what package you choose at checkout. Sling TV Sling TV is offering new users $10 off their first month with any of its three packages, which cuts the cost down to as low as $30 (reg. $40). You can choose from: the Orange, Blue or Orange + Blue Package. ABC is only offered on the Blue Package, but you can watch simulcasted games on ESPN3 (which is only offered on Sling’s Orange Package). Rather than choose between the two, you can combine the two for $45 (reg. $55) with the Orange + Blue Package, which will give you access to all 68 channels, DVR storage and the ability to stream on up to three devices. Fubo TV FuboTV is another affordable live TV streamer as it comes with a seven0day free trial for new users who sign up. You’ll have access to at least 100 channels (including ABC) as well as 1,000 hours of DVR and the option to stream on 10 devices at once. For 4K definition, you can upgrade to the Premium Plan, which also includes free Paramount+ with Showtime. Once the free trial is over, you’ll be charged $80 for the Pro Plan (the cheapest option), $90 for the Elite Plan and $100 for the Premium Plan. 2024 NBA Playoffs Schedule on ABC Check below for a list of upcoming playoff games on ABC or click here for the full schedule. Saturday (April 27): Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Lakers at 5:30 p.m. ET on ABC Sunday (April 28): Knicks vs. 76ers at 1 p.m. ET on ABC Mavericks vs. Clippers at 3:30 p.m. on ABC

A time-tested revenue model in the theater and concert world is to price the front seats highest, and sell them early to the act’s dedicated followers, then fill out the house with cheap seats to optimize cash flow and lower risk. Recorded music does the opposite: when an album drops, an artist’s music is immediately available on all streaming services to every subscriber, leaving no room for passionate fans to self-select into pricier options. In gaming, at least since the days of Minecraft, superfans have been given early access to titles prior to their publication, generating revenue, feedback and word of mouth. Movie studios use a similar model, charging for early access to cinema screenings of major films roughly 45 days before they are widely available to stream (typically first as a purchase, then as a rental). Apple used this windowed approach seeking to maximize revenue with Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon, as did Amazon Prime with Air. The record industry seems to have missed the memo. Other than an early misfire trying out streaming exclusives on the artist-owned Tidal service, it doesn’t use a windowed approach. This is a huge missed opportunity. One way for recorded music to open a more lucrative, superfan-based future is to turn to one of the icons of its past: vinyl records. Rapper Travis Scott figured this out, pressing 500,000 double-vinyl records of his Utopia album and making it available the same day he dropped it on streaming services. Scott has now sold the majority of them at $50 a pop, taking the risk, and reaping the reward. What if he had released those analog vinyl records before the album was launched digitally on streaming? If he had sold half the stock before the digital release, he would have grossed $12.5 million, perhaps banking $10 million of that as profit, all while supercharging his marketing machine as all those superfans paraded their prized product to their friends. A limited-edition package of Scott’s Utopia on red vinyl. Courtesy of Cactus Jack Records Like the boy who cried wolf, we’ve been told again and again that the resurgence in vinyl is a blip, not a trend. Yet for 18 straight years it has continued to surpass expectations. For the past three years, it’s made up over a tenth of all label revenues from the consumer and this year will see labels reap over a billion vinyl dollars, with no slowdown in sight. Analog is surging in book publishing, too, as printed books are now outselling their digital counterparts 4-to-1 and bookstores are ascending. Not long ago that would have seemed inconceivable. Now let’s look at where the vinyl meets the road: the math. While streaming is a music industry success story, it’s also a commoditization story – selling more and more for less and less. Back in 2001, Rhapsody charged $9.99 to access 15,000 catalog songs; today Spotify et al charge roughly the same for 120 million songs. Add the impact of family plan, where typically three people share a $15 per month account and the value of an account user has fallen by 10% and that’s before you adjust for inflation. Vinyl is bucking this trend. Since 2016, retail prices for the platters that matter have risen 30%. Will Page Anjelica Bette Fellini For a streamer to provide a record label the same amount of value from an album as a vinyl buyer, a customer would need to press play over 5,000 times — or stream for almost two weeks straight without sleep. Let’s be crystal clear on what this comparison really means: consumers are paying more for the same with vinyl but paying less to access more with streaming. So if you want to hedge your intellectual property bets, you’d better put some chips on black and spin the wheel at 33 1⁄3. Management guru Peter Drucker once quipped that “the customer rarely buys what the company thinks it’s selling him.” In the case of vinyl, over half of buyers don’t even own a record player. So they’re not buying the music — they’re buying merchandise that gives them a sense of identity and connection to the artist. With streaming, you merely press your thumb on a piece of glass; owning, holding and displaying a curated vinyl record with unique artwork has much deeper meaning to a fan. There are similar conundrums concerning vinyl’s relationship with the creator. Remember that streaming unbundled the album – so you could have nine filler songs on a killer Number One record yet not get paid for those songs. The book Pivot showed that Gotye’s 2011 debut Making Mirrors was the most streamed album of the year, but it was all down to one hit: Somebody I Used to Know. Strip that hit out and this record falls out of the Top 100. Vinyl captures more in the unit value — no fan can realistically give your album $30 via streaming — and all songs receive the same payout. Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is arguably the greatest vinyl success story in history; yet the obscure Ralph MacDonald track “Calypso Breakdown” from that album earned the same as the Bee Gees signature track “Staying Alive” for every album sold. Investors in music catalogs should take note: supporting more vinyl releases stands to monetize the vast majority of songs currently owned that make almost no money from streaming. Vinyl is not without its challenges. Measuring the size of its remarkable continued success story is just one. Recent changes by Luminate, the go-to source for industry data, wiped off 40% of the measured volume overnight, by flipping from extrapolating the size of the market to counting only those who opt in. That’s getting fixed, and will assuage the people it’s upset, but the point remains, there’s way more vinyl being purchased than Luminate measures. Fred Goldring Natasha Fradkin There are other challenges, too. If counting bricks & mortar retail is hard, what about tracking online physical retail that’s based anywhere yet serves everywhere? London-based Juno is a corner kick from Camden’s famous market and serves not just the UK and US, but Brazil and China in equal measure. Add the burgeoning second-hand platforms like Discogs and you get a sense that the true size of the market is a lot bigger than we give it credit for. This brings us back to the potential of vinyl’s first mover advantage. Until the latter part of 2023, vinyl faced an enormous manufacturing backlog and demand far exceeded supply for even the biggest artists. Many vinyl albums were released many months after their initial streaming release. A rise of small vinyl manufacturing plants have significantly decreased lag time and backlog. Travis Scott used the Poland-based team at Pressing Business to manufacture 500,000 double-disc, multi-cover, multi-colored Utopia albums in just five weeks, allowing for the highest vinyl debut for a hip-hop artist since records began in 1991. Combined with streaming, the album stayed at #1 for five weeks. The record industry should start selling and delivering vinyl as an early access opportunity, not an afterthought. Pre-stream vinyl releases can create scarcity, exclusivity and therefore additional revenue from superfans who will jump at the chance to be the first to hear the music or own a limited edition version. Artists will benefit creatively as well, as superfans are the ones most likely to truly appreciate the album as a body of work, curated as the artist intended (and, many would argue, with better sound). Once music is thrown into the ocean of streaming, it often gets lost at sea, and all stakeholders lose something valuable. It’s time for the record industry to embrace the vinyl first mover advantage that is hiding in plain sight. Will Page is the author of Pivot and former chief economist of Spotify, and Fred Goldring is an Entrepreneur, Entertainment Lawyer and co-founder of Pressing Business.

With high spirts and an energetic presence, Thalia opened up the Latin American Music Awards with the world premiere of the “Te Va a Doler” remix from her upcoming album A Mucha Honra, which releases Friday. Behind the decks was Mexican American DJ Deorro, who gave the song the electronic treatment. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Rocking a metallic outfit channeling the spirit of a sexy space cadet, the Mexican icon showcased her dance moves amid over a dozen dancers who wore similar shiny outfits. “Thalia!” the audience chanted at the end of her lively presentation. “What a joy to see so many familiar faces, and what a beautiful blend of cultures. We are here because we speak música,” the co-host said at the end of her set. Thalia recently told Billboard Español, “‘Te Va a Doler’ is a song that despite being regional, has a little bit of both worlds. It has a little more of Thalia’s universe, of my musical and interpretative style, but it still has the power and sonority of the new Mexican regional.’ The 2024 Latin American Music Awards took place Thursday, April 25, live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas via Univision. Hitmakers Feid and Peso Pluma lead this year’s list of nominations with 12 nods each. The Colombian singer and Mexican star, who are up for the coveted artist of the year award and album of the year award, are followed by top nominees Bad Bunny (11), Grupo Frontera (11), Karol G (9), Shakira (9), Eslabon Armado (8) and Fuerza Regida (8).  Thalia, Becky G, Alejandra Espinoza and Carlos Ponce co-hosed the award ceremony that presented in a combination of English and Spanish, marking the first time any major U.S. awards show featured a bilingual broadcast.