Music

Paul McCartney gets by on his new project, “McCartney III Imagined,” with a little help from… well, some strangers he may never actually have met before the album was completed. But the collection of remakes and re-thinkings of songs from his 2020 “McCartney III” album is bringing him some new pal now that it’s coming

Rusty Young, who co-founded the country-rock group Poco in 1968 and was the only mainstay through the band’s five-decade-plus history, died Wednesday at age 75. A representative said Young died of a heart attack at his home in Davisville, Missouri. “I just received word that my friend Rusty Young has passed away and crossed that

Even without today’s well-timed announcement that Pete Davidson would be playing Joey Ramone in an upcoming biopic, the 20th anniversary of his death would not have gone unnoted. April 15 stands out as Tax Day to many (even though in 2021, that doomy occasion won’t occur until May), but for some, it looms even larger

The Fyre Festival has reached a settlement with 277 ticketholders from the famously disastrous 2017 concert-that-never-happened, with each recipient being awarded $7,220 payouts. The settlement between the ticketholders and the trustee of Fyre festival assets was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday; the news was first reported

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler, producer Zinzi Coogler and writer and producer Sev Ohanian have teamed with Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, Senior VP of Marketing at RCA Records Archie Davis and Emmy-winning filmmaker Peter Nicks to launch Proximity, a new multimedia company. “It has been a great joy to form Proximity with some of

Independent music venues have been crushed by the pandemic, and last week’s breakdown of the Small Business Administration’s website has only delayed the $16 billion in federal relief they’re scheduled to receive. But they have received some financial aid from friends in high places, including Spotify, YouTube Music, and now Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones

Gwen Stefani isn’t one to celebrate anniversaries. “I don’t really pay attention to that stuff,” Stefani tells Variety. “I know some people live by it, birthdays and all that, but it’s just not something I care about.” But as “Don’t Speak” — No Doubt’s biggest hit, from their third album, “Tragic Kingdom” — turns 25

The late rocker and TV/theater composer Adam Schlesinger, who died from complications of COVID-19 in April 2020, will be feted by dozens of musicians and actors in May in an online tribute being produced by Jody Porter, his longtime bandmate in Fountains of Wayne. Titled “Adam Schlesinger, A Music Celebration, Virtual Show,” the stream will

Warner Music Group and Spotify have entered into a new partnership that will see the two companies develop a series of original podcasts built around WMG’s extensive and diverse artists’ and songwriters’ catalogs. “The most impactful podcasts share with music the key component of storytelling and personal experience. In partnership with Warner Music Group, we

Rising R&B singer Maeta has signed with the Roc Nation label, the company announced, and is kicking off the relationship with a new EP, “Habits,” which comes out April 30 and features her single and video “Toxic.”  The track, which is executive produced by Skrillex, features a verse from Beam and details the dialogue of

Independent music venues and theaters in the U.S. have been mostly shuttered for 13 months now — and although the #SaveOurStages act was signed into law on Dec. 27, promising $16 billion in relief to those businesses, when the website through which venues could apply for relief finally opened last Thursday, it immediately crashed. No

Morgan Wallen’s exclusion from the Academy of Country Music Awards this weekend is not going unnoted in Nashville, as fans have banded together to rent out billboards in highly visible locations declaring the MIA singer “his fan’s (sic) choice” for the top prize of entertainer of the year. “Support that boy from east Tennessee!” read

The Doors’ Ray Manzarek was known as a skilled keyboardist and respected music producer (his credits include seminal albums by X), but he was also a knowledgeable movie buff, having graduated from UCLA’s film program and receiving his MFA in cinematography in 1965. Forty days after school let out, he met Jim Morrison by chance

Longtime record promotion executive Jonas Cash, who founded the influential radio programming competition AIR (Active Industry Research) in Baltimore-Washington, MD, died at age 81 in his Columbia, MD home. “He was not just a promotion executive, but a real artist development guy,” says veteran promotion/marketing exec Michael Plen, who recalls how Cash helped him break

With the Oscars just ten days away, Variety has learned a number of the original song performances will be pre-recorded this coming Monday and Tuesday. At least some of the contenders will be performing their nominated songs on the rooftop of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The recorded

New York-based music-rights company Reservoir Holdings has announced that it will list on NASDAQ through a merger with the Roth CH Acquisition II Company. According to the announcement, the transaction values the combined company at $788 million and is expected to provide approximately $246 million in gross proceeds to the company. Upon closing of the

After an NFT fundraiser for independent venues raised more than $200,000 last week, Goldflyer and the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) have announced the second round. Top NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway has joined the effort and announced a follow-up drop this Friday (April 16) at 1:30 p.m. ET, featuring many of the artists who have

Most songwriters spend their entire professional lives trying to achieve a run of hits as remarkable as what Omer Fedi and his friends have managed to do in the past six months. But for 21-year-old Fedi, who just started making big waves in the music industry last year, he’s only at the beginning of his

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety“… Yvette Nicole Brown says after four years of Donald Trump, this year’s Emily’s List pre-Oscar event is “like a burst of sunshine.” As always, the organization, which works to elect female Democratic candidates, will host a keynote panel with industry figures on April 20 (see Must Attend for

As the follow-up to David Bowie’s first hit “Space Oddity,” the album known as “The Man Who Sold the World” is itself an oddity in the David Bowie canon. With dark, surreal lyrical themes and music that’s proto-heavy metal, the album, recorded in 1970, is an outlier, a drastic change of direction from the folk-rock

For more than a decade, Taylor Swift fans have been convinced that her song “Hey Stephen” is about Stephen Colbert… actually that’s not true at all, but it was the conceit for a bit on the late night host’s show Tuesday night that featured the singer. Using last week’s release of Swift’s re-recorded version of

Embattled country star Morgan Wallen posted a four-page, handwritten note to his Instagram account Tuesday afternoon, telling fans that he has been working on himself during his time out of the limelight and will not be playing any concerts or festivals this summer. Wallen’s plans for resuming his career in earnest have been a source

Sony Music Publishing has signed Supah Mario (real name: Jonathan DeMario Priester, pictured) to a worldwide deal. The songwriter, producer and beatmaker has credits on Drake’s “What’s Next,” “Ice Melts” and “Blue Tint” as well as “Wyclef Jean” by Young Thug; “That Way,” “Myron” and “Silly Watch” by Lil Uzi Vert; “Diamonds Talkin’ Back” by

Shares of radio and podcast giant iHeartMedia kicked up to all-time highs Tuesday, fueled by an about-face by a formerly bearish analyst who now forecasts an advertising resurgence for the company. On Tuesday, iHeartMedia’s stock closed at $19.79 per share, up +13.2% for the day. That came after BofA Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich issued

NBC has given out a pair of comedy pilot orders, including one starring music superstar Demi Lovato. The Lovato project is titled “Hungry.” NBC had previously given the single-camera show a put pilot commitment back in January. In the show, friends who belong to a food issues group help each other as they look for

Sometimes the backstories of Oscar-nominated songs are as compelling as the songs themselves. Last week, the Songwriters Hall of Fame corralled nine of this year’s 12 nominated songwriters for a round-table discussion of how their songs came to be written, and how they feel about contributing to the art of cinema. Paul Williams, Oscar winner

In a move that shows livestreaming will be a part of the concert experience even in a post-pandemic word, Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest live-entertainment company, and Veeps, the livestreaming platform Veeps co-founded by Joel and Benji Madden of the band Good Charlotte, the companies announced they have started equipping more than 60 concert

The late Slim Aarons was known as a photographer of the very rich and very white. The mid-century shutterbug became synonymous with pictures of the high society wealthy in extravagant settings of opulence including poolside mansion parties, ski resorts and more. Now, Jay-Z is turning those portraits on their heads in a new ad campaign

While Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones have been working on a new studio album for the better part of a decade, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl likes to work fast — and his influenced apparently rubbed off on Jagger, as the duo surprise-released a pandemic anthem deceptively called “Eazy Sleazy” on Tuesday. Judging by

Brett Alperowitz has been promoted to executive vice president of A&R for Republic Records, as announced today by Wendy Goldstein, the label’s president of West Coast creative.  Alperowitz, who was named senior VP in 2015, maintains his role of General Manager of Casablanca Records. He will continue to sign, develop, and cultivate talent for Republic Records and simultaneously oversee