The music sector supports two million jobs and contributes €81.9 billion ($97 billion) gross value added annually to the GDPs of the 27 European Union member countries and the U.K., a new study has found. The study, titled “The Economic Impact of Music in Europe,” was commissioned by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
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Taylor Swift has responded to news of the sale of her catalog by Scooter Braun to a private equity company, saying she spurned the firm’s hopes of working together when she learned Braun would still profit from her work, and announcing she had already undertaken the long-promised re-recording of her entire Big Machine catalog. Swift
It’s a long way from the stadium rock of Metallica, but former bassist Jason Newsted, who left the band in 2001, found the right (and remote) place to recuperate after years on the road with the heavy metal legends. And he must’ve finally got the ringing out of his ears, because the 57-year-old put his
Celebrities and fans alike rallied to defend Harry Styles on Monday in response to a negative tweet about the artist from conservative author Candace Owens. In her post on Saturday, Owens quote tweeted Vogue Magazine’s photos from Harry Styles’ cover shoot to voice concern over the feminization of men. “There is no society that can
Some 17 months after Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC acquired Big Machine Label Group and all of its recorded music assets, sources tell Variety the veteran manager and entrepreneur has sold the master rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums. The buyer, an investment fund, is as yet unknown but the deal is believed to
Heavy metal titan and founder of Megaforce Records/Crazed Management Jonny Zazula — best known in metal circles as Jonny Z — is tantamount for giving a voice and a platform to what was once an underserved and underrepresented musical community. All that changed in 1981 when Zazula and his wife, Marsha, opened a record store
Megan Thee Stallion has continued the slow drip of details about the July incident in which rapper Tory Lanez allegedly shot her in the foot after an argument. Lanez has repeatedly denied her accounts of the incident without directly saying he did not shoot her. In a new interview with GQ, Megan claims that Lanez
24kGoldn, Flo Milli, Holly Humberstone and more are among Vevo DSCVR’s “Artists to Watch” for 2021. Vevo DSCVR ATW champions emerging artists through live performance content. “Artists to Watch” is now in its seventh year, with the list consisting of artists who Vevo believes will break through in the coming months. Vevo will premiere two
Bleachers frontman and hit producer Jack Antonoff has always worn his New Jersey affiliation and Bruce Springsteen influence proudly, and today he brings it all home: Bleachers have dropped two new tracks, giving fans a sneak peek of new music a forthcoming album due next year — and one of them, “Chinatown,” features none other than Springsteen himself. The
Warner Music Group announced today that Maria Weaver has been named president of WEA, the company’s recorded music division’s global artist and label services network. Weaver was most recently Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer at Comcast Advertising and previously held senior marketing and creative services posts at Interactive One, HBO, and Showtime. She
Hulu’s original documentary about what the announcement describes as “the rise and fall” of controversial rapper Tekashi69 is streaming now exclusively on Hulu. Titled “69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez,” after the Brooklyn-born rapper’s real name, the doc is tagged “part investigative documentary, part real-life gangster movie” and details how the rapper “repeatedly broke the
While there’s been no official word, according to TMZ and social media posts by 50 Cent and others, singer-rapper Jeremih is in serious condition after being hospitalized with COVID-19. On Sunday night, 50 tweeted that Jeremih’s condition may be improving. “Thank you for praying for my boy Jeremih,” 50 wrote on Twitter. “He is responsive
Very few music boxed sets aspire beyond being gussied up digital repositories to becoming actual physical pieces of pop art. But opening up the new vinyl set from Elvis Costello, “The Complete Armed Forces,” feels like getting several Christmas mornings all at once, with a suitable-for-fondling nine records, seven paperbacks and various other ephemera intended
Ben Kouijzer, a music agent for CAA UK who represented electronic acts such as 808 State and Meduza, has died of kidney and liver failure after battling cancer. He was 36. Kouijzer was diagnosed last summer with malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, or MPNST, and underwent surgery and radiotherapy, according to his GoFundMe page. But
In the award show/live event genre, there really aren’t superstar director names like Spielberg, Tarantino, Coppola or others. It just doesn’t work like that… with the exception of my friend, Walter C. Miller, who passed at the age of 94 on Friday at home with his family around him. He was not only one of
In a sudden reversal, Gucci Mane has replaced T.I. as Jeezy’s opponent in the Verzuz Season 2 opener, taking place Thursday (Nov. 19). The switch was announced late Saturday night. Jeezy and Gucci have had a long feud stemming from a 2005 home-invasion in which Gucci fatally shot Jeeyz’s friend Pookie Loc. Gucci was acquitted
After reports surfaced on Saturday that singer-rapper Jeremih had been hospitalized for COVID-19, musicians and celebrities took to Twitter to show their support for the 33-year-old rapper. Jeremih is currently hospitalized in the ICU in Chicago, Ill. and is being treated for COVID-19, according to TMZ. although his representatives did not immediately respond to Variety‘s
“I wish you were here. It’s not the same. Because usually I sing this one along with you.” As Dave Grohl launched into Foo Fighters’ 2007 hit “The Pretender,” it was clear how much the band was missing its fans. Saturday night’s livestream from Sunset Strip haunt the Roxy was meant to shake out those
Country music singer Doug Supernaw, known for his hit 1993 single “I Don’t Call Him Daddy,” died of cancer on Friday at his home in Texas, his record label B&G Records confirmed in a statement. He was 60. “Diagnosed in February 2019 with advanced stage four lung and bladder cancer, Doug began an aggressive treatment
Walter C. Miller, a former Country Music Association Awards producer, died on Friday evening, CMA confirmed to Variety. He was 94. “Walter was an absolute television legend,” said CMA chief executive officer Sarah Trahern in a statement. “When you worked with him, you instantly knew you were in the presence of greatness. He brought so
For the last nine months, television awards shows have been busy trying to reinvent wheels when it comes to novel ways of presenting a telecast without reaction shots. That’s why Wednesday night’s CMA Awards felt like the novelty of the year so far in the awards space, just by virtue of having something resembling a
In today’s TV news roundup, ABC announced that BTS, Michael Bublé, Katy Perry and more will feature in “The Disney Holiday Singalong,” and Netflix announced the premiere date date for Season 4 of “Big Mouth.” CASTING ABC‘s “The Disney Holiday Singalong” lineup has been announced, with BTS, Michael Bublé, Katy Perry, Julianne Hough, Derek Hough,
A boxy, multistory contemporary home cleaved to a steep slope on a high ridge above L.A.’s Sunset Strip has been listed by entertainer, occasional actor and ubiquitous TV personality Nicole Scherzinger for nearly $8 million. The Pussycat Dolls lead singer, who regularly pops up as a panelist/judge on myriad televised singing competitions — “The Masked
In recent months, entertainment industry professionals have adapted to new working conditions to overcome restrictions posed by the ongoing pandemic. Friday morning’s Variety Business Managers Breakfast presented by City National Bank spotlighted some of their contributions and honored this year’s honoree, Bernie Gudvi, for his charity work with the National Veterans Foundation. The livestream event
Harry Styles is the first man to be featured solo on a cover of Vogue. The Conde Nast magazine has been in existence for 127 years and has only featured men on the cover 10 times. In the magazine’s December cover story, Styles, who’s pictured wearing a jacket and dress by Gucci, shared his thoughts
As people looked back on the chaos of the 1960s from the relative calm of the ‘80s and ‘90s, the adage that turbulent times make for great art came up a lot. Whether or not that’s true — we’d venture that anyone who ever idly wished they’d grown up during the ‘60s is getting a
Tinseltown power couple JBeau Lewis and Milana Rabkin — he one of UTA’s top agents, repping big-name music stars like Chance the Rapper, Bad Bunny and Sean Paul; she the CEO and cofounder of Stem, a distribution and payment service for musicians — have hoisted their contemporary Spanish Revival-style home on the market with a
Young Dirty Bastard is effortlessly keeping the legacy of his father, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, alive. The late New York rapper (known as ODB) was not only one of the founding members of the legendary rap group Wu-Tang Clan, but he was considered one of the most unique, vibrant, out-of-the-box, unpredictable personalities hip-hop has ever encountered.
If you want to rue the pop music events that did not happen in 2020, you can add to the list the fact that Paul McCartney had planned to sing “Shake It Off” with Taylor Swift when they both would have been headlining the Glastonbury Festival in the UK this past summer. Not that Swift
After creating the biggest musical moment of the pandemic year with his record-breaking Easter Sunday livestream, Andrea Bocelli will be staying in a holiday streaming spirit with a followup event, “Believe in Christmas.” The singer will perform from the Teatro Regio di Parma opera house in Italy on December 12, with different streaming kickoff times