Live Nation has announced that Cindy Agi has joined its Concerts team as a Global Tour Promoter. In her new role, Agi will be responsible for building relationships with global touring artists and booking major international tours around the globe. Agi was previously the co-head of the hip-hop department at WME and was their first black female
Music
On the latest episode of Variety‘s Strictly Business podcast, how the role of a music manager has changed in recent years. To help us understand today’s artist representation game, we speak to Mark Gillespie, who co-founded the company Three Six Zero and has been instrumental in guiding the careers of Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, Will
Elton John has weighed in on DaBaby’s homophobic comments at the Rolling Loud festival last weekend. “We’ve been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show,” the singer-songwriter wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs
Joseph “Dusty” Hill, ZZ Top’s bassist for more than 50 years, has died, the group’s longtime rep confirmed. No cause of death was cited. The band’s Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard issued a statement: “We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in
Jack White launched a new website Wednesday, Jack White Art & Design, to showcase his work outside the realm of music creation, with sections devoted to practices that range from graphic design to sculptures to interior design to… yes, fans guessed it… furniture and upholstery, one of his first and most legendary loves. Peeks into
It’s not a Joni Mitchell/Jimi Hendrix collaboration, per se, but the next best thing, or at least the next oddest thing: A recording of a 1968 Mitchell concert that the legendary guitarist captured from a front row seat has been discovered after decades of being considered lost. And it’s among the unreleased material that’s been
Loud Robot, filmmaker JJ Abrams’ new label through RCA Records, has signed its second act, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sally Boy. The announcement comes with a new track and video “Bad Habits,” which you can see and hear below. “Bad Habits” is the third track to be released this summer and will be featured on Sally
Damn right, he’s got his own doc. Buddy Guy, the blues legend whose 1991 “Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues” firmly established him as part of the form’s upper firmament after decades of work, is the subject of a two-hour “American Masters” documentary premiering this week. (Besides being seen on PBS broadcast stations, it can
Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, one of the most successful recording artists of the ‘80s and ‘90s, has signed a global recordings agreement with BMG to release his upcoming studio album, the company announced on Wednesday. It is his first new label deal after more than 40 years with Universal-affiliated labels, beginning with A&M, which released his eponymous
Gravitas Ventures has secured the U.S. rights to Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac.” The distributor will release the film, which is a sequel of sorts to the British filmmaker’s notorious 2002 docu “Biggie & Tupac,” in U.S. theaters this fall before seeking a home on
Say and think what you will about Kanye West — about his ego and politics and mental health and indefensible public statements and all the rest of it — but he actually is a musical genius, at least by the contemporary definition of the term. As a songwriter, lyricist and rapper, he’s excellent — but
Dua Lipa is speaking out against DaBaby’s homophobic comments at Rolling Loud. The pop star — who collaborated with DaBaby on the wildly popular remix of her song “Levitating” — took to her Instagram story on Tuesday to condemn the comments DaBaby made during his Rolling Loud performance on Sunday night. According to a video
According to figures released Monday, the Small Business Adminstration has awarded $7.5 billion of the $16 billion in #SaveOurStages federal relief to independent venues that was signed into law late in December, of which $6.3 billion has been paid out. While the SBA has done a solid job of moving things forward after six months
Joey Jordison, co-founder and original drummer of the aggressive hard rock band Slipknot, has died, according to a statement from his family. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed, although the statement says he died “peacefully in his sleep.” He was 46. “We are heartbroken to share the news that Joey Jordison, prolific drummer,
Wu-Tang Clan’s one-of-a-kind album was sold to an anonymous buyer in the U.S. in exchange for imprisoned pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager, Martin Shkreli’s debt. Mark Shkreli, the now disgraced pharmaceutical exec, gained notoriety in 2015 after spiking the price of a drug by 5,000% using his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals. The 62-year-old drug, Daraprim,
The Weeknd will be honored with the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award at the first annual Music in Action Awards, hosted by the Black Music Action Coalition and taking place September 23 at the 1 Hotel in West Hollywood. The ceremony is to honor musicians, music executives, and music businesses that have made the most significant
John Mayer may be a step closer to putting a down payment down on a yacht, thanks to the success of “Sob Rock,” which tops the Rolling Stone album chart this week with a surprisingly robust 101,500 units. Included in that tally were an unusually healthy 56,700 copies moved in pure album sales, suggesting that
All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Thankfully for Deadheads, the Grateful Dead has no plans of going anywhere. The legendary 1960s rock band still
Ryan Adams, the singer-songwriter who has been largely persona non grata in the music business since multiple women alleged abuse beginning in early 2019, has taken to Instagram to beg record labels for “a second chance to make some music,” saying he is “scared” he will lose his home, his studio and his indie label
Grammy-nominated rapper Jack Harlow and manager Chris Thomas, songwriter-producer Sean Douglas and manager Rachel Douglas, and Grammy-winning songwriting-production duo Nova Wav all have joined Range Media Partners; Thomas joins as managing partner and Rachel Douglas as partner in the company’s music division, respectively. Sean Douglas has written or co-written hits for Lizzo, Thomas Rhett and
It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that “Gone” would become a country chart-topper in July of 2021. It was an anomaly that superstar Dierks Bentley would even pick a song that he hadn’t co-written himself to record, much less release as a single. But having Nicolle Galyon’s name attached to the song as a writer might
Clive Davis and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the artists who will be joining Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson at the New York City “homecoming concert” in New York’s Central Park on August 21: Andrea Bocelli, LL Cool J, Kane Brown, Elvis Costello, Earth, Wind and Fire, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds,
Sinead Harnett, Snail Mail, Ambar Lucid, Paris Texas and 23 other acts are members of YouTube Music’s Foundry Class of 2021, which focuses on independent artists. This year’s class is the largest to date, with 27 artists from 14 countries and multiple style of music,culled from the largest number of submissions the program has received
A new Venice-bound documentary on singer Leonard Cohen will be shopped internationally by doc specialists Dogwoof. Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine’s latest feature “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song” is executive produced by Oscar winner Morgan Neville and Jonathan Dana, a long-time collaborator of directors Geller and Goldfine (“The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to
As Israeli talent has taken U.S. screens by storm — quite literally in the case of a successful series like Netflix’s “Fauda” or Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman — the time feels ripe for a similar embrace of music from the tiny country of 10 million. That’s what Universal Music Group is banking on, having
Britney Spears’ new lawyer is putting up a fight for his famous client, seeking to remove her father, Jamie Spears, from the conservatorship that she has been under since 2008. On Monday, the pop star’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, filed a motion seeking to appoint an accountant, Jason Rubin, to take over as conservator of her
Gibson Guitars isn’t just about selling instruments, anymore; with a newly created label, Gibson Records, the company is also in the business of selling albums — starting with a flagship release by Slash, of Guns N’ Roses fame, who’ll be putting out his next record through the imprint. The guitar company has entered into what
Britney Spears’ new attorney has filed a petition to replace her father, Jamie Spears, with CPA Jason Rubin of Woodland Hills, Calif. Spears’ father has been her sole conservator, ever since he placed his daughter under the court-approved arrangement in 2008 when she suffered a tough time in the public eye. In 2019, he stepped
After days of unconfirmed reports that Kanye West’s new album “Donda” — which was first announced in 2019, then shelved, then suddenly revived last week, then bumped again — will be released on Aug. 6, although as with all things Kanye, that date is a moving target. West held a listening session for the album
British guitarist John “Hutch” Hutchinson, a key collaborator in David Bowie’s early career who performed on the original version of “Space Oddity,” died over the weekend after a long illness, according to a report on Bowie’s official website. Ours thoughts are with the family and friends of John Hutchinson who passed in hospital yesterday after