Music

The Recording Academy has named veteran talent producer Chantel Sausedo to the new position of managing director of artist relations. Over the past 20 years Sausedo has served as talent producer or a talent executive on multiple Grammy Awards and Billboard Music Awards, as well as last year’s “John Lewis: Celebrating a Hero,” “Stand Up

Gabin Rivoire’s documentary “Laurent Garnier: Off the Record,” which explores the origins and rise of techno music through the eyes of one of its pioneers, is set to world premiere on May 7 in front of a live audience at the CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen. Anton, which is handling world sales, has released its first

A Justin Bieber tour that was scheduled to begin June 2 and run through the summer has been pushed back into 2022, with an official announcement likely to come soon, sources tell Variety. Postponement of at least some of the dates, if not the entire tour, has seemed like a fait accompli for months. It’s

Goldman Sachs’ annual “Music in the Air” study is widely recognized in the music industry as an optimistic but authoritative survey of the business — and yet again, it will make Universal Music Group very happy, as it has valued the company at a whopping $53 billion ahead of its IPO, expected this fall. That’s

The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested five suspects allegedly involved in the Feb. 24 shooting of Lady Gaga’s dogwalker and the kidnapping of her two French bulldogs. Three of the suspects — James Jackson, 18; Jaylin White, 19; and Lafayette Whaley, 27 — have been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and

Whenever greatest-live-albums-of-all-time lists are compiled, it’s a safe bet that Motorhead’s classic 1981 “No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith” will be on them somewhere. Not only was Motorhead one of rock’s all-time classic bands — led by the late, legendary Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, in their early years they were one of the rare groups accepted by both

Endeavor has taken a bold step into the public equities markets. Now what? Endeavor president Mark Shapiro enthused on Thursday that the IPO, which launched the stock at $24, marks the beginning of a new chapter for the company that has been through a fair amount of turmoil and transition over the past few years.

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its shortlists in nine categories in February, only one female composer made the cut for best original score — Lolita Ritmanis for “Blizzard of Souls.” Even then, the Emmy-winning composer was considered a long shot. Ritmanis was up against Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (who

Billie Eilish announced earlier this week that her second full-length album, the sarcastically titled “Happier Than Ever,” will be dropping in July, and has followed with a new single from it, “Your Power.” “this is one of my favorite songs i’ve ever written,” she wrote in an all-lowercase statement accompanying the song. “i feel very

Coldplay will return with their first new music since 2019 next Friday with “Higher Power,” a new single produced by Max Martin — the most successful songwriter-producer of the last 25 years. It would not be unreasonable to expect that an album will be following sometime in the coming months as well. The group posted

Going once. Going twice. Sold! Timotheé Chalamet’s costume he wore to play Harry Styles on “Saturday Night Live” has sold for $4,725 during Christine Baranski’s celebrity auction on Wednesday for The Actors Fund. The action raised close to $140,000 for the entertainment industry non-profit. Other big sellers included a monkey music box from “The Phantom

As more and more concerts go on the books for the fall, Genesis becomes one of the first to announce a major arena tour, announcing rescheduled North American tour dates for their “The Last Domino?” tour, the first time in 14 years the group has played the continent. The tour will see core members Tony

Endeavor has made its entrance on Wall Street. Endeavor Group Holdings, home of UFC, WME and IMG, went public on Thursday with its listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol EDR. CEO Ari Emanuel was surrounded by Endeavor staffers as he rang the ceremonial bell to kick off the trading day.

While multiple outlets, including Variety, reported last April that Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino was foregoing his $3 million salary for all of 2020 due to the pandemic and its devastating effect on the live-entertainment industry and the company, according to SEC filings, he did so for less than two months. His salary was reinstated

Anita Lane, an Australian singer-songwriter known for collaborating with Nick Cave and the Birthday Party as well as her own recordings, has died at 62. Cave paid tribute on social media, tweeting, “From her to eternity” — a perhaps inevitable eulogy, given that the song that went by that title was her most famous co-write

In a pair of initiatives announced Wednesday, Jagermeister and a group of artists working with Brompton bikes — including Radiohead, Phoebe Bridgers, Foo Fighters, Dinosaur Jr. and others — are stepping up to help the National Independent Venue Association, the “Save Our Stages” effort and Crew Nation, which support indie music venues and affected workers

Just days after Downtown Music sold nearly 150,000 publishing copyrights to Concord, the company has laid off an unspecified number of staffers in its Nashville office.  Among the affected employees was executive VP Steve Markland, the highest-ranking member of the Nashville team; the news was first reported by Billboard. Following Concord’s acquisition of Downtown Music’s 145,000-song publishing

Florence Welch will journey into the Jazz Age for her new musical project, one that will offer up fortune seekers and flappers, rum runners and rich dilettantes, self-made men and high society standard bearers. In short, it’s F. Scott Fitzgerald’s glittering masterwork, “The Great Gatsby,” which will provide the spine of a new stage show

Spotify reported results for the first quarter of 2021 in line with expectations, with total revenue up 16% — helped by 46% uptick in ad sales. The streaming audio giant also said podcast listening hit an all-time high in Q1, calling out “The Joe Rogan Experience” as delivering better-than-expected performance. Overall, the company said monthly

Music, games and pictures all contributed to a doubling of full year net profits at Sony, the Japanese electronics and entertainment group, despite disruptions caused by the coronavirus. Reporting its financial results for the January to March quarter and 12-month results from April 2020 to March 2021, Sony said that annual sales increased by 9%

Lana Del Rey has revealed that a new album, titled “Blue Banisters,” is coming July 4. In posts to her Instagram and Twitter accounts on Tuesday night, Del Rey wrote, “Blue Banisters. Album out July 4,” alongside what looks to be the album artwork. “Blue Banisters” seems to be the follow-up to March’s “Chemtrails Over

If you’ve ever been to Ryan Tedder’s studio, you know immediately he’s a collector nonpareil in the pop world: Framed documents signed by Gandhi or Napoleon stand nearly side-by-side with a Warhol. But does a love of physical collecting translate into the world of NFTs (non fungible tokens)? For the OneRepublic frontman, it very much

After over a year of being closed due to the pandemic, the Grammy Museum is opening its doors to the public with three new major exhibits starting May 21. “Dave Matthews Band: Inside and Out” will be on view through fall 2021, “Y Para Siempre… Marco Antonio Solis” will be open through spring 2022 and

Red Bull Records has bulked up its staff with a number of hires and promotions. Nikki Cox will serve as the label’s Chief Marketing Officer, leading the organization’s efforts across marketing, digital, publicity, and streaming. She formerly served as VP of both global commercial marketing and international marketing at Capitol Records, and a senior post

After years of silence, Britney Spears will speak to the probate court in June regarding her long-standing legal conservatorship. At a hearing on Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny scheduled a hearing on June 23 to allow Spears to speak on the “status of the conservatorship.” Samuel Ingham, the probate attorney appointed to

A full complement of actors and TV hosts has been added to the lineup for May 2’s “Vax Live” taping at So-Fi Stadium, for a Global Citizen special that will air on major networks and online platforms the following Saturday, May 8. David Letterman, Gayle King, Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, Jimmy Kimmel, Sean Penn, Nomzamo Mbatha

We’ve been reluctant to jinx it, but after a disastrous non-launch earlier this month, the website for the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venue Relief Grant (SVOG) was up and running at noon E.T. on Monday and in its first 24 hours, received more than 17,000 applications and submitted nearly half of them. The website, also

Spotify, the world’s top paid music-streaming service; Hybe, the company formerly known as Big Hit that spawned BTS; and Clubhouse, the actual-human-conversation-based social-media platform launched just last spring, have made Time magazine’s annual “100 Most Influential Companies” list. According to the announcement, “To assemble it, Time solicited nominations across sectors including health care, entertainment, transportation,

Al Schmitt, one of the most revered engineers and producers in the annals of the music business, died Monday at 91, his family confirmed. No cause of death has been given. Schmitt received more Grammys for engineering — 20, not including his separate Latin Grammys and a National Trustees Award — than anyone else in

WEA, the Label and Artist Services division of Warner Music Group, today announced that Benjamin Blank has been named president of media, a newly created position. In this role, Blank will lead WMG’s new digital advertising and creative content division, unifying WMG’s digital advertising under one unit. Based in Los Angeles, Blank will continue to