Music

After helping launch Blackpink’s new single into the YouTube record books, Interscope Records is expanding its K-pop roster with one of the scene’s fastest-rising young stars, Somi. Variety can exclusively share that Somi’s Korean company The Black Label — a subsidiary label of YG Entertainment that’s home to groups like Blackpink, BigBang and iKon —

The already impressive audience for the Verzuz battle series — which pits one OG artist or producer against another, playing their hits — is about to get even bigger: Verzuz is coming to Apple Music and Beats 1. The first session will take place Wednesday (July 22) at 5 p.m. PT for a face-off between veteran

Brittany O’Grady can certainly relate to Bess, the aspiring singer-songwriter she plays in “Little Voice,” Sara Bareilles’ semi-autobiographical Apple TV Plus series. Whereas Bess works as a dogwalker and a bartender to make ends meet, O’Grady was a host at Figaro Bistrot in Hollywood when she was 17. She was fired after two months because

The Seattle grunge scene of the 1980s and early ’90s suffered no shortage of press coverage in its heyday, and has seen no shortage of books attempting to grapple with its legacy. From Michael Azerrard’s in-the-moment bio “Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana” to Mark Yarm’s indispensable “Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral

Addison Rae, one of the biggest TikTok creators on the platform, is co-hosting a new podcast with her mother, Sheri Nicole, debuting later this month exclusively on Spotify. In the weekly “Mama Knows Best” podcast, the duo will provide what’s promised to be “an intimate and authentic look” into their mother-daughter dynamic and how the

Elvis Duran Group media strategist Steven Levine has been promoted to president of marketing and artist relations and is hitting the ground running, co-producing “Elvis Duran’s Drag Spectacular,” which is set to air on Tuesday night (July 21) on the Elvis Duran Show YouTube Channel. Produced with syndicated radio personality Duran (pictured at left with

Atlantic Records has named Keith “Keefa” Parker Vice President of A&R. Based in Los Angeles, Parker most recently served as an executive producer on Roddy Ricch’s breakthrough album, “Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial.” He is currently working with Ricch on his second studio album as well as A&Ring the new album from Ty Dolla $ign.

On what would have been Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell’s 56th birthday (July 20), his estate has posted the singer’s previously unreleased cover of Guns N’ Roses’ ballad, “Patience.” The song, originally released on GNR’s 1988 compilation “Lies,” unveiled a more acoustic and sensitive side of the band that it had showcased during low-key performances after

International production music company BMG Production Music (BMGPM) has acquired award-winning Los Angeles and London-based outfit Dynamic Music. The two companies started a global sub-publishing agreement in 2018 that saw Dynamic’s revenue double. Under the deal, the parties also secured more than 100 hours of music use across global television and radio stations from some

Emitt Rhodes, a singer whose career began in the 1960s but who became critically acclaimed in the 1970s as a solo artist for his Paul McCartney looks and power pop stylings, died in his sleep on July 19, according to friend and record producer Chris Price. Rhodes was 70. A darling of the Los Angeles

Kanye West broke down in tears, made an outrageous claim about abolitionist Harriet Tubman, had a heckler ejected and claimed his brain was too big for his skull on Sunday at the first campaign event for his bewildering presidential run. “Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white

August Alsina is capitalizing on everyone’s interest in his “entanglement” with Jada Pinkett Smith with a new song called, you guessed it, “Entanglements.” The singer released the song late on Saturday night, after which it became trending on Twitter by Sunday morning. The song, which features rapper Rick Ross, makes numerous nods to his relationship

Kanye West has scheduled his first campaign event since announcing he was running for President two weeks ago. And despite the fact that there were reports last week that West was ending his White House bid before it ever started in earnest, the kickoff event in South Carolina (for registered guests only) is the clearest

If “The Princess Bride’s” Inigo Montoya were to ever attend a Donald Trump rally or watch his campaign’s videos, it’s clear what he’d say: “You keep using that song. I do not think it means what you think it means.” From the 2016 campaign through the present day, music fans have been baffled by Trump’s

Rapper and former Trump supporter Kanye West has announced his first campaign event backing a bewildering presidential run. According to campaign documents obtained by Politico, West has set a campaign event for Sunday afternoon in South Carolina’s Exquis Event Center in North Charleston. Anyone who attends will have to sign a COVID-19 liability release form,

Beyoncé’s latest visual album is nearly here. On Sunday morning, the 24-time Grammy winner released a trailer for “Black Is King,” her new visual album releasing on Disney Plus on July 31. The album is based on “The Lion King: The Gift,” the soundtrack for the classic Disney movie’s photorealistic remake that debuted last year.

When Katori Hall was putting “P-Valley” together, music was at the top of her agenda. More specifically, female voices. Her goal was to find as many female emcees as she could using social media and asking for recommendations. She wanted 50-50 gender parity for the music-heavy show set in the world of Pynk, a strip

L.A.’s Satellite club — a mainstay of the Silver Lake music scene for 25 years that has hosted major acts like Lady Gaga, Beck, the White Stripes and the Foo Fighters — is closed for good, its owners announced Friday. Shut down since March 12 due to the pandemic, the nightspot has already removed its

Steve Stoute shared some powerful words about Drake during a panel held on Friday (July 17). The two-day virtual SelectCon conference featured conversations with key players in the realms of entrepreneurship, music marketing, sports, personal finance, and other music industry topics. Stoute is an entrepreneur and author who has previously worked at Sony Music and

ABC and Dick Clark Productions announced that the 2020 “American Music Awards” will return on November 22, though it’s unclear in what format or whether an audience will be present. The show promises to feature marquee performances and celebrate the top artists across multiple genres. Nominees will be announced in October. The nominees are based

“Wu Tang: An American Saga,” created and written by the RZA and Alex Tse, depicts the early days of the Wu-Tang Clan in 1990s New York. Hulu renewed the scripted series for a second season in January. But the end of its 10-episode first season had many fans wondering, “Whither U-God?,” a member of the

Entrepreneur and music industry veteran Guy Oseary, whose management clients include Madonna and U2, has counseled Nick Cannon following comments the multi-hyphenate made on his podcast, “Cannon’s Class,” deemed anti-Semitic. During an interview with former Public Enemy member Professor Griff, Cannon said Black people are the “true Hebrews” and talked about anti-Semitic conspiracy theories involving

Rapper Mykki Blanco took to social media on Friday to express frustration over their work on the Teyana Taylor track “WTP,” a single off 2018’s “K.T.S.E.” project — and Taylor has responded. “K.T.S.E.” was the last of a five-album collection Kanye West executive-produced. It was released by Def Jam, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group

UPDATE: Megan Thee Stallion has issued another statement around the incident last weekend in which she says she “suffered gunshot wounds as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me.” “Black women are so unprotected & we hold so many things in to protect

For years many observers have said that the Recording Academy president/CEO role was too big for a single person, and the organization on Friday announced the creation of two key senior leadership positions — chief operating officer and chief industry officer — amid a larger staff reorganization. According to the announcement, key features of the

Gotta say that with the world as crazy as it is, it’s a relief to have an excuse on Friday mornings to dig into the towering virtual pile of songs that have been released over the past week and just focus on music for a little while — it’s like a walk in the park

Billy Joel fans looking for a fix this summer will get it today (July 17) with the release of former drummer Liberty DeVitto’s new tell-all, “Liberty: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The book, over a decade in the making, delves into tasty tidbits about life on the road and in the studio as

Ellie Goulding may not be not a household name in America in the same star electro-pop universe that contains brand-name contemporaries such as Katy Perry, Lorde and Florence Welch. But if so, who wants to live in that house, anyway? Ever since the anthemic, soft-EDM pop of 2010’s “Lights” and its accompanying folktronic album of

Marc Geiger, until recently the head of music at WME, and one of the founders of Lollapalooza, sounds like he’s not expecting to be attending any festivals in 2021. Asked on “The Bob Lefsetz Podcast” when he expects concerts to return, Geiger said, “My guess is late ‘21, more likely ‘22.” And he told Lefsetz

Pollstar has revealed the second annual “Impact 50,” its list of the 50 top executives having the most influence on today’s live business. The honorees (see full list below) are spotlighted in the new issue of the magazine, which also features a cover interview with Dayna Frank, head of the National Independent Venues Assn. and