Music

At last week’s Pollstar Live conference in Beverly Hills, one sentiment was very clear, whenever the subject arose of livestreaming as a new medium: No one expects that revolution to end just because quarantine finally has. And so you would have expected Mandolin to be doing a victory lap, after the company was named best

Culture Creators will honor Swizz Beatz and Derrick “D-Nice” Jones at the fifth annual “Innovators & Leaders” Awards Brunch in partnership with YouTube. The ceremony will take place on June 26 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and will be livestreamed on the YouTube channel for Culture Creators, an organization that puts a spotlight on the

Literally minutes after the announcement that the Recording Academy has named Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos A. Panay to the new roles of co-presidents hit the wires, the pair and CEO Harvey Mason, jr. were on a zoom call with Variety to talk about the organization’s new structure and what it means. (The three are

Rapper Lil Baby was named songwriter of the year in the Wednesday unveiling of winners of the 34th annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards, held virtually today through Thursday on the performing rights organization’s social media. Dominant plays for Lil Baby songs like “Baby,” “The Bigger Picture,” “Emotionally Scarred” and “For the Night” contributed to

After a slow season for new album releases, half of this week’s top 10 album were new entries, with Polo G bowing at No. 1 and albums by Migos, Twice, Maroon 5 and Bo Burnham also debuting in the chart’s upper ranks. Polo G had a No. 1 single earlier this year with “Rapstar,” but

UPDATED: Alamo Records, the label imprint run by industry veteran Todd Moscowitz, is leaving its joint venture partnership at Universal Music Group for Sony Music Entertainment. SME today announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Alamo, which is home to such acts as Rod Wave, Blackbear and Lil Durk. Moscowitz, a former top

Jim Bessman, a music journalist whose work appeared in Billboard for more than a quarter-century, as well as in Cashbox and Variety, died Tuesday morning at age 68 in New York City. The cause of death was an aneurysm. Beyond the byline, Bessman may be best known within the writing community for his 30-year friendship

If anyone can provide insight into the massive success of the music behind the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, it’s Mike Knobloch, president of global film music and publishing at Universal Pictures. Highlights from the Grammy-nominated music supervisor and producer’s career includes four of the top nine highest-grossing films of all time, including “Avatar,” “Titanic,”

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. Whether you’re taking an important call, listening to your favorite song or intently streaming the finale to the

In a major executive move for the Recording Academy, the organization has named Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos A. Panay as Co-Presidents, effective August 16, 2021, CEO Harvey Mason, jr. announced on Tuesday (June 22) According to the announcement, they will be joining recently elevated COO Branden Chapman and chief industry officer Ruby Marchand as

Metallica are giving their iconic 1991 self-titled album — known as “The Black Album” — the 30 th anniversary treatment with the usual remaster/ hardcover book / multiple live albums and DVDs. But most interesting of all is “The Metallica Blacklist,” a 53-track tribute album featuring covers of the album’s songs — with 100% of the

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and actor Janelle Monáe has signed an exclusive, worldwide administration agreement with Sony Music Publishing, the company announced on Tuesday. Her longtime collaborators Nate Wonder (above left, with Monae) and Chuck Lightning (right) have signed on with the company as well. In addition to her eight Grammy nominations and four albums, Monáe co-founded her

Billie Eilish has responded to a resurfaced video that appears to show her mouthing an anti-Asian remark, apologizing for behavior that she says made her “want to barf.” An edited compilation of several videos that was posted on TikTok last week appears to show the singer mouthing an Asian racial slur used in Tyler the

The song that is widely held to be the second most-covered song of all time — after the Beatles’ “Yesterday” — is “The Girl From Ipanema,” aka “Garota de Ipanema,” whose ubiquitousness was so taken for granted for decades that the very appearance of its opening bars could make it a musical punchline in comedies

Earlier this month, in the hours after the release of “Solar Power” — the title track from Lorde’s forthcoming third album, due in August — the two songs people kept mentioning as possible inspirations were George Michael’s “Freedom 90” and “Loaded” by British rockers Primal Scream. In an interview shortly after the song dropped, Lorde

The dog days of summer will come with a silver lining for Lorde fans — the release of her third album and first in four years, “Solar Power,” coming August 20. The sun won’t be quite so high in the sky, meanwhile, when Lorde finally hits the road. She’ll be touring behind the album in

When TMZ reported on June 19 that Roc-A-Fella Records was suing its co-founder Damon Dash for his attempt to auction off his one-time friend Jay-Z’s 1996 album, “Reasonable Doubt,” as an NFT, questions arose immediately. Namely, how could Dash — Hova’s former manager and ex-business partner at Roc-A-Fella and Rocawear — think he could sell

A year on from the “Blackout Tuesday,” during which the music industry paused to take a look at its racial policies and plan to reform them, how is it doing? According to both last week’s USC-Annenberg “Inclusion in the Music Business” study and a “report card” released over the weekend by the Black Music Action

More than two weeks after Ariel Emanuel stepped down as a Live Nation board member after 14 years, the Department of Justice announced that he and fellow top Endeavor officer Mark Shapiro resigned their board positions after the DOJ expressed antitrust concerns, according to a DOJ statement Monday (June 21). The DOJ’s concern was that

It didn’t take long for the enormity of the moment to sink in. Just moments after Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl led the band into “Times Like These” at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday night — the first song of the first full-capacity concert at the World’s Most Famous Arena™ since COVID-19 shutdowns

Spotify has debuted its Singles program in India with a new version of singer Dhee’s smash hit Tamil-language track “Enjoy Enjaami” by French record producer William Grigahcine, known by his stage name DJ Snake. DJ Snake has re-imagined the song, blending distinctive styles influenced by the sounds native to the south Indian state of Tamil

The Foo Fighters brought the rock back to New York City mightily with its June 20 concert at Madison Square Garden. Marking the first concert in the arena since March 2020, it followed the Foos’ much smaller warmup show at the Canyon Club outside of Los Angeles on June 15. For the MSG bow, the

Vivendi has reached a deal with Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square to sell a 10% stake in Universal Music Group, a transaction that values the world’s largest music company at $40 billion. In Vivendi’s announcement, which came at the strange hour of 2 p.m. ET on Fathers Day, apparently to capture a time when the global

The Quarantunes series of Zoom concerts that entertained industry insiders during the worst of the pandemic lockdown and raised more than $26 million for charity came to an emotional end Saturday night with a five-hour farewell edition that benefited the NAACP. The fundraising effort launched by WME partner Richard Weitz and his then-17-year-old daughter Demi

Las Vegas engagements, joint music, movies — Backstreet Boys members AJ McLean and Nick Carter and *NSYNC’s Joey Fatone and Lance Bass are touting “endless” possibilities following their sold out debut performance as “Back-Sync” at the Grove in Los Angeles on Friday night. The pop stars united for Bingo Under the Stars, an evening celebrating

Filmmaker Edgar Wright turns to Ron and Russell Mael — inasmuch as anyone can turn to another in a Zoom call — and laughs about the task at hand: “I have to say, it’s very strange for me, but I kind of love it, rating your albums in front of you.” Mind you, Variety has

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s influential album “What’s Going On,” a street in Detroit has been named “Marvin Gaye Drive.” The street naming was revealed during an event on Saturday hosted by Motown Museum and Detroit City Councilman Roy McCalister, kicking off the Detroit Avenue of Fashion’s Juneteenth festivities. The celebration

This guest column was written by Tiffany Red, a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter who has co-written hits for Jennifer Hudson, NCT, Jason Derulo, Zendaya and many others. She is also founder of the 100 Percenters, an organization that lobbies for more equitable pay for singers, songwriters, producers, and engineers. Dear Music Industry: Sometimes I wonder

On Thursday, Ms. Opal Lee, the 94-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas was in Washington D.C. standing at the right hand of President Joe Biden during a massive ceremony where he announced that Juneteenth would officially become a federal holiday. Lee has been fighting for — or rather marching toward — this moment since 2016, when

A2IM’s Libera Awards are the Grammys of independent music, the one time in the entire year that a huge percentage of that community gets (relatively) dressed up and gathers for a night of celebrating the indie sector’s wins and its continued vital importance to the global music world and economy. For obvious reasons, for the