Music

In a surprising move, KFC managed to sneak advertising onto Spotify’s ad-free Premium platform — but apparently only in the Middle East, and only for a short time before it was removed. As reported by Fast Company, to launch KFC’s new Kentucky Burger in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates-based agency Memac Ogilvy &

February 6, 2020 8:33AM PT Dead & Company — original Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir, with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti — today announced dates for their month-long Summer Tour 2020. The trek will kick off July 10 and 11 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado and conclude on August 7 and 8

February 6, 2020 8:15AM PT Madonna has hit out at the London Palladium for abruptly cutting short her live “Madame X” show after she ran over an 11 p.m. curfew on Wednesday. The singer was performing when the Palladium dropped the stage curtain and switched off the sound when she went past the deadline. Madonna

Taylor Swift has signed an exclusive global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group, after being with Sony/ATV since she first came to Nashville as a young teenager. The switch was widely expected, as it not only puts all of Swift’s future creative output under the Universal banner but reunites the singer with former Sony/ATV Nashville

Today the Rolling Stones announced that their “No Filter” tour will return to North America for a 15-city run in 2020. The 2020 tour is set to kick off May 8 at SDCCU Stadium in San Diego and will bring the Stones back to markets they have not played in over a decade, including Vancouver,

Nicki Minaj clearly felt comfortable with the interviewer when she sat for an hour-long Q&A Wednesday as part of the Pollstar Live conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Her interrogator was her manager, Irving Azoff, who she’s just as frank with — and about — now that they’re enjoying a professional partnership as she was

Amoeba Music, L.A.’s foremost outpost for CDs, Blu-Rays, DVDs, vinyl and other physical media, has broken the suspense over its future by having hip-hop star Tyler, the Creator appear in a video announcing its new location on Hollywood Blvd. This fall, the store will move just a bit northeast from its current location at the

Danny Strick, Sony/ATV Music Publishing co-president and a longtime lieutenant of former chairman Martin Bandier, has left the company, Variety has confirmed. Former co-president Rick Krim left the company last year. “With fondness and appreciation for his many contributions, I am sharing the news that Danny Strick is leaving the company,” chairman Jon Platt wrote

February 5, 2020 11:23AM PT Justin Bieber has dropped the tracklist for his forthcoming fifth studio album, “Changes,” which is slated for a Feb 14 (Valentine’s Day) release. The full tracklist appears below — guests include Travis Scott, Post Malone, Quavo, Kehlani and others. The Valentine’s Day drop comes a little over three weeks after

Hulu’s updated version of the 2000 John Cusack-led, Stephen Frears-helmed, Nick Hornby-authored classic “High Fidelity” is the type of show that can — unironically — play the perfect song for every moment. And the team brought in to oversee that very delicate process was Manish Raval, Tom Wolfe and Alison Rosenfeld. The three veteran music

French pop sensation Christine and the Queens has dropped a new song called “People, I’ve Been Said,” which is available to stream and as a live-performance video on Colors. As the announcement says, Christine and the Queens — which despite the name is one person, Héloïse Letissier — appears in the video as “a flamboyant

Johnny Depp has come on board as a producer of Julien Temple’s documentary about musician and poet Shane MacGowan, “Shane.” HanWay Films has acquired worldwide sales rights, and will introduce the project at the upcoming European Film Market, where the company will screen footage for the first time. Altitude Films will distribute the film in

Willie Nelson and Hank Williams Jr. will headline the inaugural Born & Raised Music Festival, which promoter AEG Presents describes as a “new outlaw, Texas and Red Dirt country music and camping experience” taking place at the Pryor Creek Music Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma over the weekend of June 6-7, with a pre-festival party

February 5, 2020 6:46AM PT The sophomore effort, “Southside,” arrives in April, followed by a 41-city tour. Sam Hunt may have long since set a record for longest time elapsed between a major country star’s first and second albums. Now there’s an end date being put on that record-setting, as the “Body Like a Back

After a polite pause following the announcement of their departure from Big Loud, their managers of eight years, a rep for Florida Georgia Line confirmed that the group has joined Irving and Jeffrey Azoff’s Full Stop Management, home to Harry Styles, Lizzo, Mark Ronson and others. The news was first reported by Music Row. The

Katy Perry was named ambassador of the British Asian Trust at the charity’s annual Royal Dinner on Feb. 4, an honor conferred on the pop star by Prince Charles, heir apparent to the British throne. While spotlighting the Trust’s anti-trafficking efforts in India, the Prince of Wales announced that Perry will serve as ambassador of

In response to ousted Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan’s request last week to be released from the arbitration agreement she signed when she took the job, the Academy has agreed to have the dispute heard publicly — however, that agreement is not as liberating as it at first sounds. Dugan said “The Academy intentionally brought

Rihanna will receive the President’s Award — which recognizes special achievement and distinguished public service — at the 51st National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards on Feb. 22 in Pasadena, California. “Rihanna has not only enjoyed a groundbreaking career as an artist and musician, but has also distinguished herself as a

When I released my book, “Anything For A Hit: An A&R Woman’s Story Of Surviving The Music Industry,” in September 2018, it was a starkly different environment than when I wrote it in 2016. Harvey Weinstein had been outed, Les Moonves was about to be removed from his CBS throne and Matt Lauer was weeks

Super M, dubbed “the Avengers of K-pop,” performed a sold out show at The Forum in Los Angeles on Feb 1. The seven members from SHINee, EXO, NCT, and WayV, four groups under the SM Entertainment banner, released an eponymous EP last October that caters to the American audience and have been touring North America

This year marks the 28th anniversary of Elton John’s annual Oscar-night bash benefiting his eponymous AIDS Foundation. Founded in the United States in 1992 and in the U.K. in 1993, the Elton John AIDS Foundation has thus far raised more than $400 million to help combat the stigma surrounding HIV and the AIDS virus; prevent

UPDATED: The surviving members of Soundgarden (Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd) today filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against them by Vicky Cornell on December 9, in which she alleged the group owes Cornell’s estate hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly unpaid royalties and the rights to seven unreleased recordings

Neither Liza Minnelli nor her sister, Lorna Luft, plans to see “Judy,” a film that’s based on their mother Judy Garland’s final months and stars Oscar front-runner Renée Zellweger. The film’s director, Rupert Goold, understands their hesitancy. “I’m not sure I’d want to see a movie about my mother,” he says. “Not that I don’t

In the second quarter since all of Sony Music’s operations were united under CEO Rob Stringer, the company showed strong earnings, ending the calendar year with streaming revenues up 21% and overall revenue up 7.5% to $1.99 billion. Its profits for the quarter reached $333 million. Driven by releases from Harry Styles, Lil Nas X,

“I never should have written ‘Hip to be Square’ in the third-person,” says Huey Lewis of the News fame. The man who has sold more than 30 million records, spawning such ‘80s classics as “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” “I Want a New Drug,” the Oscar-nominated “The Power of Love” and the song he’s

Liza Minnelli is getting ready to be photographed for the cover of Variety. She’s wearing an off-the-shoulder black beaded shirtdress and perched on a director’s chair. As she adjusts herself, trying to find the right position to extend her bare legs, she screeches, “I’m getting f—ed by a chair!” As if on cue, the room

A Change.org petition urging a boycott of the Beach Boys for co-headlining a safari hunters’ convention with Donald Trump Jr. this week has picked up a couple of notable signatories: two of the group’s founding members, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine. “It has been brought to my attention that on Wed., Feb. 5, the Beach

February 3, 2020 3:00PM PT Following a thunderstorm of Oprah Winfrey-related controversy and a successful Sundance Film Festival premiere, “On the Record” has secured domestic distribution at HBO Max. A harrowing look at the struggle of women of color in the #MeToo movement, specifically those accusing hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of rape and sexual assault,

February 3, 2020 2:52PM PT The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed today that Drake’s use of the 1982 recording “Jimmy Smith Rap” in his song “Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2” was fair use of the copyrighted work. Drake’s song appeared on his 2013 album “Nothing Was the Same.” The decision is unusual, not only

February 3, 2020 2:16PM PT Jennifer Lopez and Shakira dazzled the crowd in Miami and everyone watching at home during their Super Bowl Halftime Show performance on Sunday. Their 15-minute set drew a sizable 103 million total viewers on Fox, which is up 4% or roughly 3 million on last year’s Maroon 5-fronted affair. J