After less than a year, Spotify has decided shut down a test program that let independent artists upload their songs directly to the music-streaming giant. Instead, musicians — as they have had to do previously — will need to work with pre-approved distributor to get on-boarded to Spotify, if they’re not repped by a label.
Month: July 2019
“MY FIRST TIME IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!!! INSANE,” tweeted Lil Nas X on June 30 along with a video of him stealing the spotlight from both Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival. But as far as impressive firsts go — like re-writing the hip-hop rulebook with his twang-trap sound, or rocking Europe’s
July 1, 2019 9:12AM PT “What Just Happened??!” Fred Savage’s new Fox show premiered to pretty poor numbers, that’s what. The after-show spoof series aired its premiere episode last night to a 0.3 rating and a meager 800,000 total viewers. The premiere was squashed in the 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. time period by “$100,000
German filmmaker Jan-Ole Gerster made a major splash with his critically acclaimed and award-heavy 2012 debut feature “Oh Boy” (“A Coffee in Berlin”), starring Tom Schilling (“Never Look Away”). In Gerster’s latest film, “Lara,” Corinna Harfouch portrays a woman, who, on her 60th birthday, plans to attend the premiere of piano concerto performed by her
July 1, 2019 9:01AM PT Broadway audiences will soon be singing along with “Cracklin’ Rosie” and “Sweet Caroline,” at least if the producers of a new musical about Neil Diamond get their way. Producers Ken Davenport and Bob Gaudio announced that they are eyeing a run on the Great White Way for the stage show.
Audiences first got to know Niecy Nash as a comedic actress on shows like “Reno 911.” But the short-lived HBO series “Getting On,” which mixed comedy with plenty of drama, gave Nash a chance to show off another side of her acting skills — something that she’s since put on display in the TNT comedic
July 1, 2019 8:37AM PT Quibi will crown nature’s “Fierce Queens” with a series about female animals. The project comes from the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, which is behind blue-chip natural history shows including the “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth” series. It is BBC Studios’ first commission for Quibi, the short-form streaming service founded
As black filmmakers gain more traction within the Hollywood studio system, the Locarno Film Festival is putting the spotlight on black cinema around the world with a major retrospective titled Black Light set to kick off with Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” freshly restored by Universal in 4K for the landmark race drama’s 30th
Nobody can quite explain why, but there’s long been a significant thread connecting the Newport Beach Film Festival to British film culture. The Southern California festival, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this spring, always features a popular showcase of U.K. films. And now, for the fifth year running, the Southern California fest’s U.K. Honors is
Breaking News LaVar Ball is going scorched earth on Charles Barkley for calling him an “idiot” … saying Chuck is jealous of his success … and Barkley wishes he was his dad. Remember, just a few days ago Barkley blasted LaVar for the comments he made to ESPN’s Molly Qerim … with Charles saying, “Wherever
Exclusive TMZ Wag! dog walking app promises to put your pets in the hands of the best walkers, but comes up way short and then dangles Olivia Munn as a shiny object to quiet upset owners … according to a new lawsuit. Dog lovers probably already know, but for the rest of you … Wag!
Check out the official Jumanji: The Next Level trailer starring Dwayne Johnson! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert for Jumanji: The Next Level: https://www.fandango.com/untitled-jumanji-welcome-to-the-jungle-sequel-2019-219414/movie-overview?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to
Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, India’s Toonz Media Group announced on Monday a change in leadership at its Spanish subsidiary Imira Entertainment, one of Spain’s leading producers and distributors of kids and family content. The doble move sees seasoned animation producer Carlos Biern joins Toonz as its new president of animation productions & co-productions
July 1, 2019 6:14AM PT [embedded content] Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black are heading back to the jungle. Sony debuted the first look at “Jumanji: The Next Level,” a sequel to the 2017 surprise hit “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” In the upcoming adventure the gang returns to Jumanji only to
MobiTV, a provider of internet-video delivery services, announced that it closed over $50 million in new funding from existing investors Oak Investment Partners and Ally Financial and new investor Cedar Grove Partners. The company said it will use the investment to accelerate its international footprint and continue to build out its MobiTV Connect platform, which
Magnolia Pictures has nabbed North American rights to “Mister America,” a feature-length comedy that’s being billed as an extension of the world of “On Cinema,” the cult Adult Swim show. The film stars “On Cinema” hosts Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington and follows Heidecker’s attempt to enter the world of politics. Eric Notarnicola, who previously
July 1, 2019 5:00AM PT Pluto TV is targeting Hispanic audiences — long underserved in the streaming space — with Pluto TV Latino: a suite of 11 free linear channels stocked with 2,000-plus hours of TV programming in Spanish and Portuguese. The entretenimiento gratuito lineup includes content from Pluto TV parent Viacom, with dedicated channels
July 1, 2019 4:00AM PT “Aladdin” reclaimed its top spot, at the Korean box office over the weekend, beating “Toy Story 4”. “Aladdin” earned $7 million from 910,000 admissions between Friday and Sunday for a cumulative total of $61.1 million after six weekends on release. “Toy Story 4” declined only modestly, down 29%, as it
Anthony LaPaglia and Jessica Marais will star alongside Rebecca Gibney in Australian drama series “Halifax: Retribution.” The crime thriller follows forensic psychiatrist Jane Halifax and was on Australian free-TV network Nine in the 1990s and early 2000s. It has resurrected the Melbourne-set show, with production getting underway this month, on location. Other cast for the
Wild Bunch is spinning off its international sales operation as a standalone company launched by French film industry veteran Vincent Maraval and Brahim Chioua, two of Wild Bunch’s co-founders. The new outfit, Wild Bunch International (WBI), which is being set up as a subsidiary of Wild Bunch, will handle world distribution on French and foreign
“Article 15” has scooped the audience award at the London Indian Film Festival. Anubhav Sinha’s movie stars Ayushmann Khurrana and also opened the tenth edition of LIFF, which is Europe’s largest South Asian film festival. Khurrana stars as a police officer from a privileged background in “Article 15,” which Zee Studios International is distributing. He
“Spider-Man: Far From Home” swung into the China box office with a $97.2 million opening weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway — the fourth best debut of all time for a superhero film in the territory, behind April’s “Avengers: Endgame,” last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Venom.” The June 28 China release came
Rebecca Gibney, Anthony LaPaglia and Jessica Marais head the cast of crime thriller mini-series “Halifax: Retribution.” The show is the revival of an iconic Australian series that ran on the Nine Network for six seasons from 1994 to 2002, starring Gibney. In the new show, produced for Nine, Gibney’s forensic psychiatrist character is called back
The masses assembled for Billie Eilish’s Glastonbury debut defied categorization. There were teens as well as kids as young as eight years-old. You saw babies strapped into Ergo carriers and Grandparents well into their seventies. One thing they did have in common? All looked collectively enraptured by Eilish’s inaugural performance at the massive U.K. festival.
June 30, 2019 10:53PM PT Variety picked up nine prizes at the Los Angeles Press Club’s SoCal Journalism Awards Sunday at the Biltmore Hotel, including entertainment journalist of the year for chief film critic Owen Gleiberman and best website, traditional news organization, for Variety.com. Gleiberman also won for his memorial tribute “Burt Reynolds: A Movie
“Fifty years, people,” Madonna ad-libbed on Sunday night in Manhattan to a crowd of 7,000 rapturous, mostly shirtless fans. The setting for this 30-minute concert? River Island stage on Pier 97 in Manhattan, better known as “Pride Island.” Madonna’s performance of four songs closed a week of festivities for World Pride, which included the June
Of all the ways to begin a movie, few are more cruel than presenting a character such as Lara Jenkins and, before the audience has even gotten the chance to know her, showing her wearily open the window to her depressing German flat, position a chair and prepare to jump. Then the doorbell rings. It
“So, it’s time for some truth…,” wrote Borchetta in a lengthy blog post published via the BMLG website which included screen shots of deal memos allegedly sent between November 2018 and June 2019. The deal was voted on between June 25 and 28 during which, Borchetta says, all participants were allowed to go over the