Music

Steve Levy has been named chief marketing officer of Virgin Fest. Scheduled for June 6 and 7 at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium + Exposition Park, the inaugural music festival promises an “inclusive, eco-conscious weekend-long celebration” and features such acts as Lizzo, A$AP Rocky and Anderson.Paak and the Free Nationals along with Major Lazer, Ellie

The music live-streams that Global Citizen has been webcasting on a daily basis to promote World Health Organization initiatives during the coronavirus pandemic now have a considerably more spectacular outgrowth. The two organizations have announced “One World: Together at Home,” a global special that will be seen and heard across major broadcast and cable networks

Two-time Grammy Award winner H.E.R. today announces “Girls With Guitars,” her weekly Instagram live performance and conversation series, starting today at 8pm ET. During each live session, H.E.R. along with her vast array of guitars will perform songs from her catalog as well as covers and take fan requests.  H.E.R. will also invite celebrity female guitarists to perform and engage

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to change the shape of the music industry as we know it, executives are stepping forward to share their insight and experience in the Zoom webinars that are rapidly becoming a part of many of our lives. Through a virtual music panel hosted by 8 Til Faint and curated by Mauricio Ruiz (Jessie Reyez

Veteran tunesmith James Taylor is joining “The Voice” in the role of Mega Mentor for the NBC talent competition series. Taylor will begin his role on the April 13 edition of the series that will feature the four contenders that survive the Battle Rounds as the prepare for the Knockout Rounds. In a twist to

Actress and singer Rita Wilson has teamed up with veteran hip-hop act Naughty By Nature for a remix of the group’s 1992 classic “Hip Hop Hooray,” via Tommy Boy Music, and available exclusively on YouTube today. The single will be released widely on all digital/streaming platforms this Friday, April 10, with profits from the recording will be donated to the MusiCares Foundation

The Recording Academy and MusiCares today are holding a webinar on how the $2 trillion CARES Act stimulus bill affects music makers. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act contains a number of key protections and provisions that can help music creators. The webinar takes place today — Monday, April 6 — at

Duran Duran bassist John Taylor took to Facebook on Sunday (April 5) to reveal that he had tested positive for coronavirus, and is currently on the mend. Taylor was diagnosed with COVID-19 “three weeks ago,” and has been self-quarantining as per medical protocol. “Perhaps I am a particularly robust 59 year old — I like

In February, Duffy took to social media to reveal that she recused herself from her career and the limelight as the result of trauma from being kidnapped and raped. The U.K. singer had been inactive for the better part of a decade — in the late 2000s, she seemed poised for the kind of massive

Neil Lasher, who became best known as an intervention specialist in the 2010s after decades in the music industry, has died from coronavirus complications. He was 73. “Neil was a kind and gentle soul who cared deeply about his friends as well as total strangers,” Jason Flom, who has headed up several record labels and

Elton John is launching a $1 million coronavirus emergency relief fund through his AIDS Foundation, he announced on Saturday. “For almost 30 years, my foundation has prioritized the most vulnerable people to HIV to end the AIDS epidemic, and we’re committed to this during the COVID-19 crisis, too. Distributing medicines, testing and preventive treatment is

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted daily life all over the country, but Oakland, Calif. artist Thao Nguyen and her band, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, took the hardship as a challenge. The group set to film a music video for their new single, “Phenom,” in Los Angeles (where Nguyen currently resides) in late

Singer Marianne Faithfull is in a London hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from her manager. “Marianne is being treated for Covid-19 in hospital in London,” the statement says. “She is stable and responding to treatment, we all wish her well and a full and speedy recovery.” Faithfull’s friend Penny Arcade

Pink tested positive for coronavirus, the singer revealed on social media Friday night. After self-isolating with her family in Los Angeles, she is on the mend and was recently given the all-clear from her doctor. She first noticed symptoms of COVID-19 two weeks ago, Pink elaborated, along with her three-year-old son Jameson. “This illness is

In a 1962 radio interview, the famed R&B disc jockey Magnificent Montague asked Sam Cooke to define soul music in eight bars. Cooke’s response — a wordless hum that curved gently around an imagined melody with inexplicable poignancy — was so spot-on that it should have been transcribed as sheet music in dictionaries. It was

One of the few and unexpected positives to derive from the coronavirus pandemic, other than clear waters in Venice, Italy, and seeing L.A.’s smog dissipate, is watching musicians perform out of their living rooms for everyone sheltering at home. Renditions are as stripped-down as one would imagine, with no glossy studio embellishments for their vocals

Insomniac has announced the postponement of Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas to October 2-4. The dance music festival will take place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Said Insomniac Founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella in a social media post: “You, the Headliners, are the heart and soul of EDC. Without you Insomniac wouldn’t exist. Thank

In a worst-case scenario, the concert industry could lose almost $9 billion if coronavirus quarantines don’t lift by the end of the year, according to a study just published by the trade publication Pollstar — and that figure does not include associated businesses such as transportation, production, marketing, concessions, security, sponsorships and more. While Pollstar

The crowd roars as a pianist starts playing a loping swing groove. Then, a trumpet player begins a solo, his impressive wails echoing around a cavernous venue — the 82,300-person-capacity Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. When he begins singing the 1944 standard “You’re Nobody till Somebody Loves You,” spectators cheer again, this time in

Cardi B donated 20,000 bottles of OWYN — a plant-based, vegan meal-supplement drink — to New York City-area hospitals for their medical staffs and ambulance crews, a rep for the rapper confirmed to Variety. TMZ first reported the news. While a “meal supplement” does not sound extravagant, given the realities of the coronavirus pandemic that

This weekend’s music live-stream offerings are kicked off by country favorite Ashley McBryde doing an album release show Friday night and participating in the weekly Grand Ole Opry broadcast Saturday with Lauren Alaina and Terri Clark. Web festivals or multi-act benefit lineups weigh heavy in the Friday and Saturday listings. A show sponsored by Light

Chance the Rapper, Lenny Kravitz, Brian Wilson and Kamala Harris were among the artists, actors politicians who took to social media to pay tribute to Bill Withers, the R&B singer and songwriter who passed away this week at the age of 81. The writer of such classics as “Lean on Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine” and

Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, Devendra Banhart, Fred Armisen and many other artists will perform at a MusiCares livestream benefit presented by the acclaimed Seattle-based label Light in the Attic. The concert will stream live on the company’s Twitch and YouTube channels beginning at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT. Light In The Attic & Friends

The intersection of “redneck” and “sensitive singer-songwriter” has been an ever-narrowing Venn diagram in the last couple decades. Maybe it’s the waning of Texas’ influence on mainstream country music, or maybe the commodification of the outlaw label by a generation of singers who don’t really have anything more to rebel against than a low stock

R&B singer-songwriter Bill Withers, whose belated career in music burned briefly but brightly in the early ‘70s via a string of highly personalized hits, died from heart complications on Monday in Los Angeles, his family told the Associated Press. He was 81. “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father.

The strange contradictions of the present day are front and center in Drake’s new video, “Toosie Side,” which features the rapper doing a meme-generating dance inside his mansion during lockdown. The clip begins with scenes of deserted streets in the rapper’s hometown of Toronto before it moves inside a sprawling mansion — his, judging by

Los Angeles’ radio community continues to bleed talent as Chris Booker, host of the AMP Morning Show on L.A. Top 40 radio station 97.1 AMP, has been let go. His last broadcast — which was pre-taped — aired this morning (April 2). The station is owned by Entercom, parent company to alternative rock station KROQ,

In 2005, Fountains of Wayne, the band led by the late Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood, got the ultimate salute: a hugely affectionate tribute song from soneone as musically gifted and sharp-witted as they were — “Fountains of Wayne Hotline,” by Grammy-nominated veteran singer-songwrier Robbie Fulks. Schlesinger died of coronavirus complications Wednesday. Variety asked Fulks

Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles revealed on Thursday that she had contracted coronavirus, but has since made a full recovery. In a video on her Instagram story, she told her followers the news while going out for a walk after a therapy session. “I had it, just so you know. I’m fully recovered, just so you know,”

Rapper YNW Melly, who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder last year, has contracted coronavirus while in Florida’s Broward County Jail. The 20-year-old’s Twitter and Instagram accounts posted the news on Thursday afternoon. “Melly has tested positive for COVID-19 while awaiting his trial in Broward County Jail. He’ll be filing a motion for