Music

The Paramount Plus digital service will soon have a vintage MTV Networks look to some of its offerings, as the MTV series “Unplugged” and “Yo! MTV Raps” and VH1’s venerable “Behind the Music” are all set to be revived as streaming offerings, it was announced Wednesday afternoon. A new music-based unscripted show is on tap

In the wake of Bruce Springsteen’s relatively light sentence after being arrested for driving under the influence last November, Jeep has reinstated its high-profile Super Bowl ad starring the singer. After news of the arrest emerged earlier this month — just days after the ad first aired — Jeep removed the ad from YouTube and

Relix, the magazine dedicated to improvisational music, live performances and Americana-adjacent genres, is launching a limited edition vinyl series called “The Relix Sessions.” Recorded at the publication’s New York studio, the archival sessions have been re-mixed and re-mastered for turntable listening. The series kicks off on Feb. 26 with a Feb. 2020 performance by Circles

Is breaking up good for business? It can be, at least in the short term, as the members of Daft Punk are (separately) finding out. On the day the duo’s split was announced Monday, total single-day on-demand streams for the duo’s catalog amounted to 5,025,000… more than five times Sunday’s figure, which was 854,100. That

What do Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde, Neil Young and Bob Dylan have in common? Apart from being iconic rockers, they are the latest in a seemingly endless stream of superstars who are doing what for many — themselves included — was previously unthinkable: selling their songs and recordings. Who are the buyers? Activist IP aggregators

Wednesday, Feb. 24 In its pursuit of carbon neutrality, BMG has committed to offsetting all of its global site and employee-related greenhouse gas emissions, the company announced. In defining a long-term strategy to avoid, reduce, and offset CO2 emissions, BMG revealed it had offset over 3,000 tons of CO2 produced in 2019 by investing in Verified

The Weeknd has signed with CAA in all areas worldwide, the company announced Wednesday. He was previously represented by WME. The artist — who has released four studio albums, three full-length mixtapes, an EP and dozens of singles and featured appearances over the past 10 years — has won three Grammy Awards, five American Music

BMI has announced that Sandye Taylor is joining the company as Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer.  She will report to the performing rights organization’s President & CEO Mike O’Neill and will be a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Taylor’s first day at BMI will be March 8th. According to the announcement, Taylor will be responsible for

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Evan Ross appears in Lee Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” as a federal agent. He knows the subject well — his mom, Diana Ross, earned an Oscar nom for her portrayal of Holiday in 1972’s “Lady Sings the Blues.” Now, Evan says his mother approves of

In a court hearing Wednesday regarding his much-reported November DUI arrest, Bruce Springsteen pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol in a restricted area but the driving under the influence and reckless driving charges were dropped for lack of evidence. The singer was fined $500 plus fees. “Mr. Springsteen is pleased with the outcome of today’s court

Billie Eilish revealed that she’s recorded a new album in lockdown during an interview with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” Tuesday night. It’s the result of her first prolonged period of not touring since her career began in earnest in 2016. “I don’t think I would’ve made the same album, or even the album

The Black Music Collective (BMC), a newly launched initiative by the Recording Academy, will host its inaugural Grammy Week event in celebration of Black creators’ and professionals’ contributions to the music industry. The event will feature performances by H.E.R., Yolanda Adams, PJ Morton and rapper and producer duo Freddie Gibbs & Alchemist. In addition to

The pandemic has led artists to find different ways to bring their music to audiences, and for their debut appearance on the long-running “MTV Unplugged” series, the K-pop septet of BTS — RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook —transformed their stadium-filling showmanship into something more intimate. Opening the show inside a game room

Jay-Z, Tiffany Haddish, Usher, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Charlamagne Tha God, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Susan Sarandon and Pete Buttigieg are the latest guests announced to appear at “The Gathering of Harry,” a surprise virtual party for Harry Belafonte’s 94th birthday. The event will air live on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. Belafonte’s family members, friends, artists, athletes, elected

Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama talk extensively about issues of race in the first two episodes of their joint Spotify podcast, “Renegades: Born in the USA,” both released this week. The two discuss the racism the former president experienced growing up in Hawaii, Springsteen’s on- and off-stage relationships with Clarence Clemons, and how little has

As the 50th anniversary of Jim Morrison’s death approaches comes word that HarperCollins will release “The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts and Lyrics.” The 600-page book marks the most extensive collection of writings by the former Doors’ frontman published to date. The collection, which will be published on June 8, consists of

The Weeknd is one of the great serial collaborators of this era, and he is generous with his praise about the artists he’s worked with, who range from Ariana Grande and Lana Del Rey to Travis Scott and SZA. But when asked about Daft Punk — who announced their breakup on Monday, and with whom

James Burke, whose shared lead vocals helped make “O-o-h Child” into a smash for his group the Five Stairsteps in 1970, has died at age 70. Word of Burke’s death first began to circulate on Saturday and was confirmed to Rolling Stone on Tuesday by brother and bandmate Dennis Burke, who said the cause of

The annual Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala, which has taken place the night before the Grammy ceremony since 1976, has been postponed for several weeks, as Davis has been diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, a serious but temporary condition that causes sudden weakness in facial muscles, among other symptoms. A rep for Davis tells Variety that the

The owner of a Runyon Canyon vacation rental home sued DaBaby on Monday, alleging that the rapper assaulted him and stole his phone when he tried to shut down an unauthorized music video shoot last December. Gary Pagar states that DaBaby — whose legal name is Jonathan Kirk — rented the property on condition that

Grammy-nominated songwriter Ali Tamposi and artist-activist Tamar Kaprelian are set to launch an interactive learning experience, Song Start, on Spotify’s Noteable platform, Variety has learned. “It excites me to be able to draw back the curtain and to give aspiring songwriters and producers access to the tricks and the tools that industry professionals use on a

Vanessa Bryant called out rapper Meek Mill over a lyric she found to be highly insensitive regarding her late husband, Kobe Bryant. In the lyrics for an unreleased song titled “Don’t Worry (RIP Kobe),” the rapper referenced the legendary Los Angeles Lakers’ sudden death in a helicopter crash last year. “This bitch I’m fuckin’ always tell

Grammy Week 2021 will kick off with a new event titled “Women in the Mix,” which aims to highlight and amplify the voices of female producers, engineers, artists and executives in the music industry. The event clearly seems intended to address an issue that has long been a sore point not only for the Recording

Gladys Knight and Alessia Cara will be among the artists set to perform for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta. The All-Star festivities will also include performances by HBCU musical groups, including marching bands, step teams, glee clubs and choirs. Knight — an Atlanta native, seven-time Grammy winner and graduate of one of the

Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda (real name: Ackquille Jean Pollard) has been released from prison, according to a statement from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. “At approximately 8:30 this morning,  Ackquille Pollard was conditionally released from Clinton Correctional Facility. Mr. Pollard will be under community supervision in Kings County until he

To be young, gifted and banjo-playing … and, yes, Black: these were the requirements for inclusion in the group Our Native Daughters, which was assembled by Rhiannon Giddens to make an album for the Smithsonian Folkways label that started as a one-off collective project and turned into a real band. It also turned into a

The groundbreaking French duo Daft Punk stunned the music world Monday morning by announcing their breakup via an elaborate video. The announcement was all the more surprisingly because the has been largely dormant since their 2013 album, “Random Access Memories,” won the Grammy for album of the year, and largely stopped performing live after their

“Could Taylor Swift’s remake of ‘Fearless’ be nominated for the Grammys?” It’s a question that has arisen repeatedly in the short time since Swift released “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” and promised that her full-length recreation of the blockbuster 2008 “Fearless” album would arrive in April. It’s an interesting question… in a completely theoretical, “Who’d win

Sydney’s The Kid LAROI has signed a worldwide deal with Sony Music Publishing. The artist, songwriter, and producer, whose real name is Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, is currently riding the success of his song “Without You” and 2020 debut mixtape, “Fuck Love.” In his native Australia, The Kid LAROI, who is signed to Columbia Records,

Entertainment and tech entrepreneur Scooter Braun is entering the cannabis business. Braun’s Ceres Acquisition Corp. and Atlanta-based Parallel, one of the world’s largest privately held multi-state cannabis companies, have entered into a “business combination” to launch a publicly traded U.S. cannabis “well-being” company. The new company will be listed on the Canadian NEO stock exchange.