December 13, 2019 6:05AM PT Republic Records has named Chris Blackwell senior vice president of creative content & development, it was announced today by co-founders Monte and Avery Lipman and general manager Jim Roppo. According to the announcement, Blackwell will lead creative development for film, television and premium platform projects set to feature and showcase Republic Records artists. His responsibilities include
Music
Kewsong Lee, co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, a private equity fund whose assets include a minority investment in Big Machine Label Group, the record company that’s home to Taylor Swift’s catalog, spoke to CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” on Wednesday. During the interview, held at the Goldman Sachs Financial Conference, host Wilfred Frost asked the business executive
Shows on the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV and Food Network may sound very different in the coming months. That’s because Discovery Networks, which owns those and other cable channels, is instituting a new pay policy that virtually assures no composer currently working on their programs will do so after Dec. 31. Discovery has informed
Pharrell Williams today announced the music lineup for the second year of his acclaimed “Something in the Water,” a multi-day music festival and cultural experience taking place in his hometown of Virginia Beach over the weekend of April 24-26, 2020. A$AP Rocky, Baby Rose, Bae Worldwide, Banks, Beck, Brittany Howard, Buddy, Chad Hugo, Chance the Rapper, Clipse, EarthGang,
In the first statement from Juice Wrld’s family after the rapper died on Sunday, his mother, Carmella Wallace, spoke of his struggles with addiction, which he addressed in many of his songs. “We loved Jarad with all of our hearts and cannot believe our time with him has been cut short,” she said to TMZ.
Harry Styles has chosen to use his superpowers for good and not evil. These powers were vested in him by the superstar status of One Direction, which with each passing month sets new records for longest hiatus ever, even as its members meander in multiple directions. The most satisfying of these detours has been Styles’
Less than two weeks after 28-year-old K-pop singer Goo Ha-ra — known professionally as Hara — was found dead in her home on Nov. 24 in a suspected suicide, South Korean pop star Kang Daniel posted a series of troubling messages on his fan portal. “Someone please save me,” he wrote on Dec. 3. “Everything
Anyone wondering what the Recording Academy’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion has been doing for the past 18 months got their answer this morning in the form of the organization’s strongly worded, 47-page-long Final Report, which is now available on the Academy’s website. As its name states, the Task Force, helmed by former first
Hipgnosis Songs has acquired its fourth music catalog of the month, this one from prolific songwriter, producer and artist Jack Antonoff. He is frontman of Bleachers, a founding member of Fun. and has collaborated extensively with Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Lorde, Pink, St Vincent and many others. While terms of the deal were not
“The Masked Singer” is television’s top secret. The reality competition show goes to great lengths to keep the identities of the celebrity characters under wraps for the audience. In fact, the crew, director, cameramen, judges and even host Nick Cannon are left totally clueless about who is under the mask, just like the viewers. Turns
The Game just unleashed his ninth and purportedly final album, “Born 2 Rap,” on his 40th birthday (November 29). In fact, you could say the Los Angeles rapper gifted his own fans with the 25-track collection. Chock full of hard-hitting bars, aggressive punchlines, timeless samples, and vivid lyrical storytelling, it’s the hip-hop album we’ve been waiting
“Knives Out” marks the fourth collaboration between composer Nathan Johnson and director Rian Johnson, having previously teamed up on “Brick,” “Looper,” and “The Brothers Bloom.” But their roots go far deeper than that: they’re cousins. Nathan Johnson says he first heard about “Knives Out” over a decade ago. “He basically told me about the opening
The old school L.A. punk scene and the contemporary wave of LGBTQ es may not seem like they’d have a huge amount of crossover in a Venn diagram. But Cyndi Lauper did honor to both Tuesday night at her annual Home for the Holidays benefit, which usually takes place in New York but found a
Hoping that your favorite band will reunite is a lot like wishing your divorced parents might come together again. It’s wishful thinking that willfully ignores the facts for the heart. When an official-looking Instagram account appeared Tuesday, fans were quick to speculate the band just might be getting back together. Don’t get your hopes up,
Harry Styles served as guest host of “The Late Late Show” on Tuesday. The “Lights Up” singer delivered the late-night show’s monologue, drove host James Corden to work in a mini version of “Carpool Karaoke” and interviewed Kendall Jenner. Styles challenged Jenner to a game of “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts,” in which
December 11, 2019 1:10PM PT Musician Michael McDonald, about to embark on a 30-city North American tour celebrate to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the legendary, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominated yacht rock band The Doobie Brothers, has his low-key Hawaiian hideaway on the scenic outskirts of Maui’s Lahaina up for
Neil Jacobson, the president of Geffen Records, is leaving the Universal Music Group company to start his own venture. Called Crescent Drive Productions, it will operate as an independent music management firm, publishing company and record label. Jacobson had been with UMG for 17 years. He also manages the careers of producer and songwriters Jeff
Natalie Merchant has always gone her own way. From her days as the swaying 1980s flower frontwoman of 10,000 Maniacs to her success as a singer-songwriter of bluesy folk ballads in the ’90s, she never bothered with boring conventions of pop princess imagery or pandered to the radio’s demands. But she did have hits: five
December 11, 2019 11:19AM PT [embedded content] Without overstating the case, it’s hard to imagine that R. Kelly would not be in jail today if not for “Surviving R. Kelly.” While many of the details and accusers featured in the Lifetime docuseries were new, the primary facts have been known for many years — and
December 11, 2019 10:45AM PT On the heels of the announcement of Def Leppard’s North American stadium tour next summer comes news that the group has signed a global administration agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The British group has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, particularly of its ‘80s blockbuster albums “Pyromania” and “Hysteria.”
December 11, 2019 9:29AM PT Robin Thicke has signed with ICM Partners for representation in all areas. The multi-hyphenate is a featured panelist on Fox’s reality hit “The Masked Singer.” He’s also a busy recording and touring artist who had a smash hit in 2013 with “Blurred Lines,” which topped the pop charts for 12
Amazon Music today released its brand-new mini-documentary, titled “Mariah Carey Is Christmas: The Story of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You,’” diving deep into the origin of the blockbuster holiday song. The mini-documentary, created in celebration of the 25th anniversary of her album, “Merry Christmas,” features interviews with Carey, producer Randy Jackson, and other
Hipgnosis Songs Fund has acquired a music catalog from five-time Grammy-winning producer, songwriter and musician Jeff Bhasker. Terms of the deal were not announced, but Bhasker has worked extensively with such artists as Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (on “Uptown Funk” and Mars’ “Unorthodox Jukebox” album), Kanye West (“808s & Heartbreak” and “My Beautiful Dark Twisted
As often happens after an unexpected death, Juice Wrld’s music soared in popularity after his passing on Sunday, with streams climbing nearly 500% on that day alone. On-demand audio streams for the rapper, who died at the age of 21 after suffering a seizure at Chicago’s Midway Airport, climbed 487% on Sunday to more than
December 10, 2019 3:01PM PT Harry Styles announced Tuesday he is partnering with American Express to give away tickets to his concert at the Forum in Los Angeles on Friday — on a special custom bus. At the show, “Harry Styles Fine Line Live: One Night Only!,” the singer is expected to perform his entire
Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp teamed up for two duets; Debbie Harry and DMC (Darryl McDaniels) collaborated on an epic rap collaboration; and the Eurythmics reunited for a set at Sting and Trudie Styler’s 30th annual Rainforest Benefit at the Beacon Theater in New York City Monday night (Dec. 9). The event was hosted by
Entertainment One (eOne) has partnered with Entotal Agency, an artist management company co-founded Tom Muzquiz and Jorge Sánchez, with Diego Abaroa. With a roster that includes Fanny Lu, Raquel Sofia, Lupita Infante and Martina La Peligrosa, Entotal specializes in Latin markets and also offers marketing, promotion, social media and public relations services. eOne’s Latin bonafides
Fighting off a seasonal surge from Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” The Weeknd’s two new singles topped the Rolling Stone Top 100 songs chart this week. “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights,” both of which dropped last week, rocketed to No. 1 and 2 respectively with more than 40 million streams between them.
Pharrell Williams is giving viewers an inside look at his songwriting process for “Letter to my Godfather,” a new tune he wrote for “The Black Godfather,” Netflix documentary about legendary music executive Clarence Avant. “Clarence Avant is known as ‘The Black Godfather’ because literally as a black man, he was able to do things that
UPDATED: Warner Music Group and Providence Equity Partners today announced plans to invest in recorded-music and music-publishing catalogs via a newly established platform, Tempo Music Investments, that has raised $650 million. Among the first acquisitions of the venture are selected copyrights of Grammy Award-winning songwriters Jeff Bhasker and Shane McAnally, and Ben Rector. The move