First-week numbers for “The Masked Singer’s” robot have been unmasked. Lil Wayne’s “Funeral” debuted atop the Rolling Stone albums chart with 138,000 album units tallied. Breaking down that figure, 37,500 of Lil Wayne’s total came in traditional full album sales, with the remainder being a combination of his 118.2 million song streams and 18,100 individual
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It’s a logical comparison: “Rocketman” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” are both biopics about British rock stars whose careers launched in the 1970s — Elton John and late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, respectively — and both were directed by Dexter Fletcher. So we had to ask the latest Academy Award winner for his thoughts. “Ours tells the
Justin Bieber collaborator Poo Bear, whose real name is Jason Boyd, has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Peermusic. The songwriter and producer is credited on such hits as Bieber’s “Where Are Ü Now,” “What Do You Mean?” and the remix of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” featuring Daddy Yankee along with Usher’s “Caught Up,” “I Don’t
Penske Media Corporation, owner of Variety and Rolling Stone, announced today a strategic investment in the British trade publication Music Business Worldwide, which first entered into a global content partnership with Rolling Stone and PMC in November 2018. With the addition of MBW to PMC’s family of brands, PMC will further leverage MBW’s expert business
Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Sunday night Oscar win completed her clean sweep of top show-biz awards over the past five months. The Icelandic-born, Berlin-based cellist-composer won for her dark and disturbing “Joker” score. She also won the BAFTA on Feb. 2, the Critics Choice award on Jan. 12, the inaugural Society of Composers & Lyricists award
February 10, 2020 1:51PM PT Rage Against the Machine’s reunion tour is no longer five stops long… as you knew it wouldn’t be. After previously announcing just a quintet’s worth of dates back in November, the group has now announced a full seven-month global tour that will run from March 10 through Sept. 6 of
Though he has long made his primary residence in Malibu, for more than a dozen years Kenny G has kept a low-key home in the trendy and increasingly spendy Studio City area of L.A.’s sprawling San Fernando Valley that’s come back for sale on the open market at $3.5 million. The new price tag is
February 10, 2020 8:48AM PT Janet Jackson, fresh from a residency in Las Vegas last year, today announced North American dates for her “Black Diamond” world tour this summer. The outing is an all-new production featuring new music from her forthcoming album “Black Diamond,” which is set for release later this year, along with songs
Harry Styles will perform a special concert for SiriusXM and Pandora on February 28 at a secret location in New York, the satellite radio giant announced today. According to the announcement, the “intimate set for SiriusXM subscribers and Pandora listeners will feature Styles performing songs from his recent sophomore album, ‘Fine Line,’” and will include an
Splice, the popular platform for rights-cleared sounds and beats, has paid out more than $25 million to musicians in its artist-to-artist marketplace, the company has revealed. The milestone marks a significant acceleration since announcing a year ago that it had reached $15 million in payouts. That’s in large part because Splice is seen as “a
February 9, 2020 7:59PM PT Hildur Guðnadóttir became only the fourth woman to win an Academy Award for score as she walked away with honors for her “Joker” music Sunday night. “To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters, who hear the music bubbling within, please speak up. We need to
Elton John’s end-titles theme for his own biopic, “Rocketman,” won the best original song award at Sunday’s Academy Awards, his first Oscar since he won for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from “The Lion King” at the 1995 ceremony. Although the win for “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” was John’s second Academy Award, it
Eminem made a surprise performance on the Academy Awards Sunday night, coming out for a rousing rendition of “Lose Yourself,” his Oscar-winning hit from the 2002 film “8 Mile.” His appearance immediately followed a montage celebrating the sound editing/mixing award, which wound down with footage from “8 Mile” and concluded with Burt Reynolds in “Deliverance,”
Janelle Monáe kicked off the Academy Awards with a song-and-dance production number based on her 2010 song “Come Alive,” lyrically rewritten to reference the Oscars and some of the year’s top films — with spoken asides about the lack of female directors represented among the nominees, and what she personally represented as the show opener. “We
Snoop Dogg, who caught heat over the weekend for seeming to have threatened Gayle King in an Instagram video post, is now insisting the message was misinterpreted, saying, “I don’t want no harm to come to her, and I didn’t threaten her. All I did was say, ‘Check it out. You out of pocket for
February 7, 2020 5:35PM PT A little over a week since wowing some 103 million people with her Super Bowl Halftime Show performance alongside Shakira, Jennifer Lopez has entered into an exclusive multi-year touring partnership with Live Nation. The concert industry giant will produce and promote Lopez’s concerts globally beginning with her next tour. Her
A musical drama about the imminent demise of a shipbuilding town in the North East of England, and a union’s last-ditch attempt to reclaim the village’s pride? Audiences: No thanks. How about a musical drama about shipbuilding and unions, but with a song score by Sting? Audiences: Ha ha… nice try, but still no. All
“Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” is nothing if not a thrilling ride. Newly single after The Joker dumped her, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) sets out on her own to find a new identity, rather than forever be seen as someone’s girlfriend. The story is, as the title suggests, one
After 37 years in leadership positions at the Capitol Christian Music Group and its predecessor companies, chairman/CEO Peter York has set a retirement date of March 31. His stepping aside was long expected, as a succession plan for CCMG was put in place six years ago, and Brad O’Donnell and Hudson Plachy were promoted to co-presidents
February 7, 2020 9:38AM PT Maggie Gyllenhaal will play Gladys Presley, the King of Rock and Roll’s mother, in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” The Warner Bros. film stars Austin Butler in the title role and Tom Hanks as Elvis Presley’s manger, Colonel Tom Parker. Luhrmann co-wrote the script with Craig Pearce. The movie revolves around the
The Pussycat Dolls dropped their brand new video for “React” early Friday morning. The video features Nicole Scherzinger, Jessica Sutta, Kimberly Wyatt, Ashley Roberts and Carmit Bachar, and in true PCD form is a throwback to everything fans loved about them in the first place: great choreography and a killer tune with electro-pop influences and
If Katie Vinten looks right at home in her new West Hollywood offices — and she does — it’s because the space is precisely the vibe she and her business partner, seasoned hitmaker Justin Tranter, were going for. “We wanted our physical structure as well as the sentiment around the business to feel like a
When Sebastian Maniscalco picked up his Pollstar Award for comedy tour of the year Thursday at the Beverly Hilton, he took note of how many more managers and agents there were than performers accepting their awards in person at the ceremony. “Am I the only artist that comes to get the damn award?” he quipped.
It’s a safe bet that 25-ish years ago, when Nada Surf dropped their debut EP “Karmic” on No. 6 Records, even they never dreamed they’d be releasing their eighth full-length today. But although their strain of Beatles-Kinks power pop (which they do as well as anyone in the present tense) hasn’t been near the mainstream
Twenty years ago Christina Aguilera’s “What A Girl Wants” became the first No. 1 song of the 21st century. It remains a thriving and culturally resonant girl-power anthem, a film and TV go-to and a staple at karaoke bars. This first No. 1 of the millennium was a milestone for me as well because I
If you were to compare Green Day to a cockroach, founding members Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt might not object. Who knows— they might even express an affinity for a species of insect that’s earned a reputation for being indestructible, knowing what it takes to endure as a punk band that’s forging
Lukasz Gottwald, the music producer better known as Dr. Luke, scored a comprehensive legal victory on Thursday in his six-year legal battle with the singer Kesha. Gottwald sued the singer in 2014, accusing her of defaming him by fabricating a rape allegation in a bid to get out of her recording contract. Kesha has alleged
February 6, 2020 2:25PM PT Warner Music Group today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. According to the announcement, the shares of common stock to be sold in this offering are proposed to
Steven Cagan, a conductor, composer, songwriter and musician who worked in film, TV, theater and on records, died Feb. 1, on his 77th birthday. Family members that were by his side as he passed on announced the cause of death as the effects of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Cagan’s wide-ranging credits ranted from writing,
Disney darling turned golden piped international pop star Demi Lovato has put her contemporary villa above L.A.’s Laurel Canyon back up for sale at just under $9 million. The 27-year-old five-time People’s Choice Award winner and two-time Grammy nominee, who gave a powerful performance her new single “Anyone” at the Grammys in January and slayed