Music

+ Audio Up, home to such audio programs as Stephen King’s “Strawberry Spring,” Michael Cohen’s “Mea Culpa” and the just-released Audible exclusive “Maejor Frequency,” is bolstering its executive ranks with the hiring of music supervision trailblazer PJ Bloom and label marketing veteran Christine Kauffman. Bloom (pictured at left) will serve as co-president of music, alongside

The CMT Music Awards, which agreed to move their date and venue when the 2022 Grammy Awards announced their relocation to Las Vegas, have unveiled the new date and venue for their inaugural broadcast on CBS: The show will now broadcast live from Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium on Monday, April 11, from 8 p.m – 11

A new but familiar voice is coming to Los Angeles’ Alt 98.7. Starting Feb. 1, KROQ veteran Stryker is joining the station’s Chris Booker for “ALT Afternoons with Booker and Stryker,” airing weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Stryker (pictured at right and below) left KROQ in June 2021 and his amicable parting came

Graham Nash and India Arie are the latest music artists to announce they are following in the footsteps of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell by removing their music from Spotify. Nash said in a statement that he “completely agrees” with his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate Neil Young after “having heard the COVID disinformation

Country artist Mickey Guyton will sing the National Anthem, R&B singer Jhene Aiko will perform “America the Beautiful,” and gospel act Mary Mary will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” accompanied by the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, as part of the pre-game ceremonies for the Super Bowl on Feb. 13, the NFL announced on

ViacomCBS hopes to revive its “MTV Unplugged” series of acoustic concerts, all with the help of a new energy drink that shares part of its name. PepsiCo’s new Rockstar Unplugged is a different sort of energy beverage, one the company hopes will create good vibes with ingredients like hemp seed oil, B vitamins, spearmint, and

J Dilla — a.k.a Jay Dee, a.k.a. James Dewitt Yancey — was a pioneering hip-hop producer who never worked on a “hit” record, although his discography includes collaborations with or remixes of songs by greats like D’Angelo, A Tribe Called Quest, the Roots, Common, Busta Rhymes, the Pharcyde and many others. He died in 2006 of

Meat Loaf songs are filled with parenthetical clauses, so it feels appropriate to use one in the service of explaining what happened with his 1977 “Bat Out of Hell” album on the new Billboard 200 chart: In 2022, following his death, it soared to its peak position to date. (But actually reach the top 10?

Gawvi, an artist and producer in the Christian hip-hop community, has been dropped by his label, Reach, and from an upcoming tour in light of a developing scandal involving his allegedly sending unsolicited sexually explicit photos to women. “Due to behavior that is inconsistent with our core values, we have ended our professional relationship with

In August, Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker got matching arm tattoos that read “Born With Horns,” the title of Kelly’s upcoming album. But in a TikTok video posted Monday, Kelly confessed to Barker, the album’s executive producer, that he’s changing the LP’s title to “Mainstream Sellout.” Kelly prefaces the video by asking Barker, “We’re

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the surprise hit off the “Encanto” soundtrack, has gone where even “Let It Go” couldn’t: It’s become the first song from a Disney movie to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin” did it in 1993. It joins the “Encanto” album

The Grammys may have been postponed until April, but the U.K. equivalent – the Brit Awards – will take place next week as planned at the O2 Arena in London. However, the event will not quite be fully restored to its traditional set-up, with no industry tables on the arena floor (execs will instead be

Sherri Chung has been elected governor of the music branch of the Television Academy, where she’ll serve alongside Jeff Russo, replacing Rickey Minor. Chung is the first female governor for the music branch. Chung, who continues to work as a composer on “Kung Fu” and co-composer on “Batwoman” and “Riverdale,” is currently working on the

Sony Music Publishing has announced Songwriter Assistance, a new program that will provide its global roster of songwriters and composers with access to free, confidential counseling services and wellness resources. According to the announcement, starting February 1, Songwriter Assistance will offer 24/7 counseling support via global hotlines, as well as ongoing counseling services for emotional health matters

Grammy-winning DJ and producer Zedd will open the 2022 NHL All-Star Game in Los Vegas. The National Hockey League (NHL) announced Monday that the performer will kick off the party by performing a set during player introductions. The NHL previously announced that Machine Gun Kelly will headline the annual hockey game, taking the stage during

Island Records has named Mike Alexander general manager, it was announced by new label co-CEOs Imran Majid and Justin Eshak. Alexander will continue to be based in New York and report jointly to Majid and Eshak. A nearly two-decade veteran of Island’s parent company Universal Music Group, Alexander has for the past year been an

Primary Wave Music has expanded its partnership with long-running British group and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Def Leppard. The deal will see the company acquire an additional stake in the band’s music publishing catalog as well as master royalty income stream. Terms of the deal were not disclosed; many of the band’s

Anheuser-Busch is counting on smooth-jazz impresario Kenny G to add a few new notes to an increasingly appealing strategy for beer advertisers around the Super Bowl. When the musician sounds his interpretation of a jingle for Busch Light beer that has been around since the late 1970s, he won’t do so in a national commercial

Hargus “Pig” Robbins, a Country Music Hall of Fame member who played piano on thousands of Nashville sessions and was renowned to Bob Dylan fans for his work on “Blonde on Blonde,” has died at age 84. No cause of death was immediately given. Robbins’ first major hit as a session man had him playing

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a blizzard that dropped nearly a foot of snow on New York certainly could have put a major damper on the War on Drugs’ biggest-ever concert in the five boroughs — but despite those obstacles, an impressive crowd witnessed the group’s debut at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Indeed,

For five years, Janet Jackson has been filming a documentary, preparing to share her accounts of the most intimate — and the most widely reported-on — moments of her life. In “Janet,” which aired its first part on Friday and continued on Saturday on Lifetime and A&E, the groundbreaking and private singer dug into everything

The late rapper XXXTentacion left behind a complicated legacy after he was murdered during a robbery in June of 2018 — dozens of platinum or gold-certified and influential songs amid charges of domestic abuse and violence. A pioneer in the SoundCloud emo-rap genre, nearly four years after his death, the Florida rapper’s earliest songs on the

Neil Young railed against Spotify in a new blog post published on the Neil Young Archives. The company announced earlier this week that it was pulling Young’s music off its platform after the musician demanded Jan 24. to be removed, citing the streaming service’s distribution partnership with Joe Rogan and accusing Rogan’s podcast, “The Joe

In an era of TikTok favorites getting record deals and lead acting roles, follower counts and blue checkmarks seem to be a requirement for getting a big break in Hollywood. It is therefore refreshing and rare when a 19-year-old from Manhattan with no internet fame whatsoever is plucked from relative obscurity and given the chance

Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter and producer Astn, who went viral on TikTok for his R&B remix of Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” has signed with Warner Records. The R&B breakout star, whose real name is Austin Sanders, dropped his debut EP as Astn, “Tell Your Friends,” in 2017. Today marks the release of his first

A long-gestating movie about The Who’s late drummer Keith Moon is finally moving ahead, with plans in place to shoot in Britain this summer, Variety can reveal. The project, which is tentatively titled “The Real Me” (the title of a song on Who album “Quadrophenia”), has Moon’s former band members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend

Moon Projects, former TikTok music chief Mary Rahmani’s joint venture with Republic Records, has unveiled its first signing: Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Em Beihold, whose song “Groundhog Day” became a viral smash last year. Today she’s released the single and video “Numb Little Bug,” which she first teased on TikTok a few months back. [embedded content]

The season of Lent is a ways off, but Bono already knows what he’s giving up: humility. “During the week there was this story about me not liking the sound of my voice,” he points out, referring to a podcast comment he made about his youthful tone making him feeling “cringe”  — an offhand remark

Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey and Olivia Rodrigo are just a few of the artists who stepped out Wednesday night for the opening of LACMA’s “Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined” exhibit. The show features more than 50 artworks inspired by Interscope recording artists by 46 visual artists. Most are newly commissioned and are being

300 Entertainment — the label home of Megan Thee Stallion and Young Thug, which was acquired by Warner Music earlier this month for $400 million —has launched a content and film division, 300 Studios. Its debut project, “RACE: Bubba Wallace,” is a docuseries that will be released on Netflix next month. 300 Studios is headed by