The Production Music Association has announced the full list of nominees for the sixth annual Mark Awards, which celebrate the top achievements of the production music community in 24 categories. Jaswinder Singh and Jenna Dicken are among the artists who earned best hip-hop track nominations, and folk music artist Ruby Landen earned a nod for
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After a pandemic-induced delay and several production shutdowns and rescheduling, singer-songwriter and “Power” star Rotimi presents his official video for “In My Bed,” featuring Wale. The clip is steamy but reps assure that safety protocols for talent and crew were strictly followed. “This record has been a blessing for me and I felt like the
On day two of his latest epic Twitter binge, Kanye West followed through on his complaints about the music industry and his demands to be released from his recording and music-publishing deals by tweeting out dozens of pages from his recording contract with Universal Music Group. After referring to the music industry as “modern day
The $6 plastic crown worn by the Notorious B.I.G. at a photo shoot days before his death was auctioned off for $595,000 on Tuesday at the first-ever Sotheby’s auction focused on hip-hop memorabilia. The crown — which was sold by photographer Barron Claiborne — more than doubled the pre-auction estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It was was
Bonnaroo has unveiled details for “Virtual Roo-Ality,” a free three-night live broadcast airing exclusively via YouTube. The livestreaming event will celebrate the annual festival with a range of programming, spanning new live performances, original content, and archival sets captured at Bonnaroo’s home at Great Stage Park in Manchester, TN. The festival will stream live on
New York City venue (Le) Poisson Rouge is launching LPR.tv, a subscription-based service through which they will livestream concerts held in their downtown venue (without an audience) in high-definition video with full production and soundboard audio. The venue has booked an impressive array of indie-leaning artists for LPR.tv’s inaugural lineup, including Cults, Kimbra, Sunflower Bean, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), San Fermin, Kevin Devine, Son Little, Laraaji, Too Many Zooz and
Kobalt has signed Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R. Jackson to a global publishing deal. The company will handle the playwright, composer, and lyricist’s publishing administration, creative services and sync for both catalog and future works. Jackson’s critically-acclaimed musical “A Strange Loop” won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, in addition to a multitude of additional honors
Grammy-winning DJ-producer Tiësto has signed a worldwide deal with Atlantic Records and will drop a new single called (fittingly enough) “The Business” next Friday (Sept. 25) — hear a preview of the song below. Named by Mixmag as the “Greatest DJ of All Time,” Tiësto is currently completing his debut for the labels, with release
Spice Girl and solo artist Melanie C has released a new track and music video titled “Fearless” (video above), featuring U.K. rapper and rising star Nadia Rose. The track is from Melanie C’s self-titled eighth studio album, which will release Oct. 2 and includes the lead single “In And Out Of Love.” The album release
KCRW, one of the most widely heard and influential public radio stations in the country, is suffering major hits amid the pandemic, as close to 20% of its content creators have been cut loose in a buyout. That figure was offered on social media by We Make KCRW (@wemakekcrw), a Twitter account representing the staff
Anita White, the artist who goes by “Lady A,” filed a countersuit for trademark infringement on Tuesday against the Nashville trio formerly known as Lady Antebellum. Lady Antebellum changed their name to “Lady A” in June, as the connotations of the band’s original name become untenable amid the George Floyd protests. But that created an
When Grateful Dead cofounder Bob Weir heads out on tour with Dead and Company, the crew extends far beyond his bandmates. As he explained Tuesday during a Zoom conference, a standard U.S. tour for the group actually involves a staff of 96 — along with local truck drivers, caterer, security guards, artists designing shirts and posters,
Jonas Group Entertainment (JGE), the company headed by Jonas Brothers patriarch Kevin Jonas, Sr. is expanding its operation with the launch of a Nashville-based publishing division, Jonas Group Publishing. Songwriter Terri Jo Box, whose credits include songs recorded by Miranda Lambert (“Dear Old Sun” from 2017’s ACM winner for album of the year “The Weight
For the better part of the last decade, Dev Hynes has been one of the most prolific artists in the kind of taste-making pop and R&B that tops critics’ best-of lists and soundtracks five-course meals at your favorite restaurant. In addition to his five albums as Blood Orange, Hynes’ dance card as a writer-producer includes
TuneCore, the digital music distribution service provider for independent artists, has launched in Russia and Brazil, the company announced today. These openings mark the ninth and tenth countries with local TuneCore hires, and the company says it has several more planned in the coming year. Both Russian and Brazilian music markets will be supported by
Spotify has teamed up with Ticketmaster and live-music app Songkick to include virtual event listings on the platform, which will appear in both the “On Tour” section of artist profiles and in Spotify’s concerts hub, the streaming giant announced Tuesday morning. Events must be listed either on Ticketmaster or Warner Music-owned Songkick to be included.
Like so much of “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2,” the recently released remaster of the first two “Tony Hawk” games, the soundtrack captures the magic of the first two installments while adding some improvements. For starters, Vicarious Visions and Activision Blizzard, the developer and publisher behind “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2,” managed to get back
UPDATED: Kanye West launched a new social-media campaign to gain control of the rights to his recorded music and publishing on Monday night, claiming “I’m not putting no more music out till I’m done with my contract[s]” with his record company, Universal Music Group, and his publisher, Sony/ATV Music Publishing. He continued his efforts on
Three K-pop bands are represented on Twitter’s list of the top 10 most tweeted-about artists in the U.S. during the past six months. Twitter released a trend report on Tuesday under the banner “Twitter From Home.” It analyzes tweet activity made between March 1 and Sept. 1 — encompassing six months of the COVID-19 quarantine.
J Balvin, Ellie Goulding, FKA twigs, Grimes, Matt Healy from the 1975 and Chaeyoung from Twice are all starring in the new season of Google Arts & Culture’s Art Zoom series, which takes viewers on a guided tour of some of the world’s most famous masterpieces through the narration of famous musicians. Through Google’s “gigapixel”
SiriusXM today announced that Chief Executive Officer Jim Meyer intends to retire on December 31, 2020. He had been in the role, initially as interim CEO, since December 2012, when longtime CEO Mel Karmazin stepped down — also after around eight years in the role — after Liberty Media gained control of 49.5% of the
Al Kasha, the songwriter who won Academy Awards in the 1970s for co-writing hit ballads for “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno,” died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 83. No cause of death was immediately given. As part of a songwriting team with Joel Hirschhorn, Kasha received two Tony nominations, four Golden Globe
Kanye West took a break from his presidential campaign to make some declarations about his music career Monday, saying that he will refuse to release any new music until his record company, Universal Music Group, and his publisher, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, free him from their deals. He quickly followed that up by saying that Drake
“My mom can hardly see, so I want the whole world to see us.” That’s what MCA Abdul, the 12-year-old from Gaza who recently went viral when a video of him rapping while flanked by his schoolmates was posted to Instagram, told me when we first got on the phone to talk. He was describing
Leona Lewis and record producer/reality singing competition tycoon Simon Cowell may have parted ways professionally when the sultry songstress left his Syco Record label five years ago, but it seems Lewis’s former mentor still has her back. The British-born pop chanteuse, discovered in 2006 on the U.K’s “X-Factor,” which Cowell created and served as a
For two and a half hours on Sunday night, the latest Verzuz episode — the DJ battle where two hip-hop or R&B legends compare their catalogs in (usually) friendly competition — was more like a cross between a mutual-admiration society, a church service and a good talking-to from your mother. The Sept. 13 session matched
Big Sean lived up to his name by debuting on top of the weekly album rankings with “Detroit 2.” It collected 97,400 album units to lead the Rolling Stone album chart, as Taylor Swift finally ceded the top spot after a historic six-week run at No. 1 for “Folklore.” 6ix9ine’s “TattleTales” didn’t do nearly as
Khalid, Post Malone, J. Cole and producer Nick Mira among the top honorees as BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) unveiled its annual list of winners for the R&B/hip-hop awards Monday morning. Song of the year honors went to Khalid’s “Talk,” which had also been nominated for record of the year at the 2020 Grammys. As a
ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) announced plans Monday to do with its three fall awards shows what it previously did with four shows in the spring and summer: take them online and turn them into multi-day affairs designed to appeal to the public as well as the music industry. The pandemic-era
The indie management and publishing company Primary Wave Music has announced six new hires in its branding and digital marketing divisions, and also has promoted Mike Fordham to director of streaming and playlist marketing. Joining as senior VP of brand partnerships is Samira Qureshi, who comes to Primary Wave from Disney and brings over 20