Music

The fast-growing Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s revenues soared in its first full year of business, climbing to $81 million in the 12 month period ended in March 2020 from around $8.9 million in the preceding period. The firm, which has been on an unprecedented acquisition binge of hit songwriter and producer catalogs —  been buying up

No one can accuse Willie Nelson of not acting his age… which, at 87, is an impressive feat. Throughout a recent string of albums, he’s been remarkably willing to devote much or most of the content to reflections on aging, which include looking back on regrets (or the lack of them — he did name

From his long braids, dusky baritone and cocksure cackle to an all-around Brooklyn swagger that came through on every track, rapper Pop Smoke had the sort of pointed signatures that made him unique and immensely sellable. Bugged-out, drill-inspired cuts such as 2019’s “Welcome to the Party” and “Dior” – the latter a taut and tension-filled

Baby Yoda. Jean-Luc Picard. A medieval witcher. A world where fairies have sex with humans. Steve Carrell aiming for the moon. A science-fiction anthology. The fantasy and sci-fi realms prospered on TV during the past season, particularly with the help of several gifted composers. The anthology “Tales From the Loop” (Amazon) boasted the most high-profile

If you ever wanted to be part of big-name artist’s music video, the barrier for entry has never been lower. Tens of thousands of fans a day have been able to insert themselves into the fast pace of clips that makes up a “never-ending music video” by Twenty One Pilots for their song “Level of

The San Gabriel Valley’s charming city of Pasadena is full of architectural treasures, and one of the best-kept midcentury secrets in town recently trundled onto the open market for the first time in decades. Designed by local architect John Galbraith and completed in 1956, the flat-roofed house last sold in 1963 — for well under

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) has established a strategic partnership with Japan’s CoMix Wave Films Inc., the animation studio and distribution firm best known for works by helmer Makoto Shinkai. The new partnership will see the original soundtracks from 17 popular Japanese animated films put up on TME’s music platforms: QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo

Vanilla Ice has put a planned weekend concert outside of Austin on ice after catching heat for promoting what looked to be a non-socially-distancing show amid a marked uptick in COVID-19 diagnoses. In what may count as one of the major “duh” moments of the year, the rapper has backtracked on his claims that his

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” has an enviable batting average when it comes to Emmy Awards for music supervision — the past two have gone to the team of show creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino and music supervisor Robin Urdang. But this year, the “Maisel” crew has its sights on the original song competition, unfamiliar

On Friday, Boygenius — consisting of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — and Father John Misty are both dropping benefit releases exclusively on Bandcamp, which — for the fourth time since the coronavirus pandemic set in — is waiving its sales fee for the day, meaning that all proceeds go to the artist,

Multi-Grammy winning director Jonas Akerlund is to helm “Midas Man,” a movie about The Beatles’ manager and music impresario Brian Epstein, it was confirmed Thursday. Epstein discovered The Beatles – indeed Paul McCartney referred to him as “the fifth Beatle” – and they signed a contract with him in 1961. He also worked with music

In what is described as a “charged response to both the outrage and solidarity rising from the national reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism,” Rage Against the Machine cofounder Tom Morello has joined forces with Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds, producer The Bloody Beetroots and singer Shea Diamond for a new single called “Stand Up.” The track was written by

A few months after Kurt Cobain’s death in April 1994, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl called his longtime friend, musician and producer Barrett Jones: Grohl wanted studio time. What transpired was a five-day session manned by Grohl and Jones at Seattle’s Robert Lang Studios which yielded, note for note — with only final mixes finished later

At its core, the explosively popular short-form video app TikTok is a platform built on trends: Different dances, songs and transformation challenges come and go, with seemingly little rhyme or reason to their popularity. But over the course of quarantine, TikTok’s mysterious algorithm has become a champion of something much more permanent by pushing all-female

Ed Sheeran, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones are amongst the more than 1,500 musicians who have signed an open letter to U.K. Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden demanding support for the live music industry that has been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. “With no end to social

Paramount Pictures has scooped up the first feature film made by director Lee Daniels in nearly a decade, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Sold by Endeavor Content in an eight-figure deal out of Cannes’ big-spending virtual market, the project follows the dramatic true story of the Federal Department of Narcotics targeting the jazz legend

Music industry service provider Outdustry has this week launched Outdustry Songs, a new independent music publisher focused on China, with an exclusive sub-publishing deal with U.S. indie Reservoir. Founded in 2006, Outdustry provides specialist A&R, rights and marketing services, aimed at the China and India markets. Its small team of 16 is split up across

Jay-Z’s Made in America festival has been a Labor Day and Philadelphia tradition since 2012, but not surprisingly, it will not be taking place in 2020. An official statement from the festival reads: “2020 is a year like no other. We are in a pivotal time in this nation’s history. Collectively, we are fighting parallel

Ty Dolla $ign is one of the most prolific artists working today, but although he made a pile of guest appearances in 2019, he has not released much under his own name since 2018’s “MihTy” tag-team with Jeremih. He’s back with a big splash today, with a new song called “Ego Death” featuring Kanye West

Is Mary Ramos, the woman Quentin Tarantino praised as “the unsung hero of my filmography,” staging a takeover of TV music supervision, too? Ramos is a television newbie, but made up for lost time by shaping the soundtracks to two of the year’s most binge-worthy limited series, “Mrs. America” and “Little Fires Everywhere,”working with former

It may be a blessing of sorts for anyone interested in checking out “Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash” that its VOD release is coming in the middle of a pandemic, when not very many people are rushing to get back on planes again anyway. The film delivers on the

Elton John is launching a weekly archival concert footage series entitled “Elton John: Classic Concert Series,” featuring footage from concerts throughout his career on his Official YouTube Channel. The series begins on Friday (July 3), at 12 p.m. ET/ 9 a.m. PT exclusively on YouTube with “Live at Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh” from 1976. Following this Friday’s episode, a new,

Maroon 5 bassist Mickey Madden was arrested Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles on charges of domestic violence, according to multiple media reports. Police confirmed to Page Six that the charge against the 41-year-old musician involves willful infliction of a “traumatic” injury on a spouse or cohabitant. The identity of the victim was not immediately available;

Bertelsmann-backed BMG Music and ITV Studios have struck a partnership that will see the German music publisher become the go-to partner for the “Love Island” and “Bodyguard” producer-distributor’s business spanning production music, records, publishing and synch. The deal includes a global music publishing and administration agreement for future commissioned music, as well as the launch

As the foremost Black woman in country music — and one who is still waiting to enjoy a big radio hit, despite a series of buzzy singles over the last five years — Mickey Guyton has sometimes felt she faced the “double whammy” of race and gender, to the point where she says she’s often

Pearl Jam has honored the memories of the nine fans crushed to death during its June 30, 2000, Roskilde Festival performance with an emotional statement authored by guitarist Stone Gossard on behalf of the band. “It’s been 20 years since that day,” Gossard writes. “But nothing has been the same since.” The band was in

Brad Paisley knows the Grand Ole Opry has its ghosts, but March 21 felt downright eerie. There was no anticipatory murmur of excitement from fans filing into the Grand Ole Opry House that night. No curtain going up. No applause marking the moment the show began. Instead, Paisley and fellow Opry members Vince Gill and

For a brief period in the early 1990s, Shannon Hoon seemed to be just about everywhere. As frontman for Blind Melon, he managed to blaze through nearly all of the standard rock and roll fantasy milestones in rapid succession – a Rolling Stone cover, a hit single, a Platinum album, stadium gigs opening for the

The storm may have been too strong for most music-biz awards events or conferences to go on in anything resembling their traditional form this year, but the Americana Music Association likes to think of itself as, well, more rooted than that. The org that celebrates the rootsier forms of contemporary music has had a slew

Interscope Records has promoted Keinon Johnson to senior vice president of urban radio promotions at the label. In his new role, Johnson will assume oversight of the label’s urban radio department from current head Larry Khan, who has announced that he will retire in 2021. He is based in Interscope’s Santa Monica headquarters. Johnson’s department recently posted hits with Mustard’s “Ballin” (featuring Roddy