There’s perhaps no better barometer by which to judge a person’s mogul-dom than the company one keeps. In the case of Scooter Braun, a recent trip to Portofino, Italy, on a yacht that included guests David Geffen and Jeff Bezos, just about says it all. In simultaneously helming Ithaca Holdings, which is valued at $800
Music
Back in the day, Dan Rather used to be famous for dogging Richard Nixon, but now he’s associating with subjects who are a little more upfront about their dirty deeds done dirt cheap. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson leads a list of musicians that dominates the lineup of subjects for Rather’s series “The Big Interview,” which
Following his recent move into country music, prolific hitmaker Diplo is now doubling down on his roots by launching a new house music label called Higher Ground. Named after his recent deep-house inspired EP of the same name, according to the announcement the label is a platform to showcase both established and up-and-coming talent in house music,
On her new album, “Lover,” Taylor Swift sings frankly about something she doesn’t love: being underestimated. In the feminist anthem “The Man,” the pop superstar sings not just on behalf of herself but all powerful women who’ve felt judged by an inconsistent standard: If she were male, Swift supposes, “They’d say I hustled, put in
“Damn, look at us now … we came, and we saw, and we conquered it all,” the music industry’s ultimate power couple proselytize on “LoveHappy,” the song that caps their 2018 Grammy-winning album, “Everything Is Love.” A more fitting title might have been “Everything Is Money,” because the collection was also an ode to the
The Country Music Association went with an all-female hosting lineup for this year’s show, and that woman-celebrating theme continued when nominations for the 53rd annual CMA Awards were announced Wednesday morning: Maren Morris led the pack with six nods. Morris’ sophomore album, “Girl,” is up for album of the year, while the song of the
August 28, 2019 6:14AM PT South Korean boy band BTS have broken event cinema records yet again with their latest hit, “Bring the Soul: The Movie.” Big Hit Entertainment and Trafalgar Releasing announced Wednesday that the documentary feature had sold a record 2.55 million tickets across 112 territories worldwide – the widest ever release for
Dear Sebastian Maniscalco: I have been an MTV loyalist to the core since video officially killed the radio star. And I love the VMAs. For as many years as I can remember, my very hip mama and I deconstructed the cutting-edge performances, the “Moon Man” (now “Person”) victories and epic fashion over coffee the next
Mark Fry has been appointed to the newly created post of Vice President, Warner Music Nordics, the company announced today. In this role he will work with Nordcs President Jonas Siljemark to support the company’s teams across the region, and will also continue to serve as managing director of Warner Music Finland, a title he has held
Nearly three years after it opened as a museum, the management of Paisley Park, Prince’s sprawling production complex outside of Minneapolis, will “transition entirely” to the late artist’s estate, according to a statement. The move, effective Oct. 1 of this year, will see the estate take over from P Park Management Inc., an entity created
Tributes to Neal Casal continued to pour in Tuesday as word got of the singer-songwriter-guitarist’s death, with famous friends whose bands he’d served in leading the memorials. “I can’t believe I’m having to say goodbye to my friend and my brother,” Chris Robinson said in a statement. “It’s almost too painful. When I think about
Madonna has delayed the start of her intimate “Madame X” tour, due to issues with “highly specialized production elements,” according to a statement from promoter Live Nation. The first three concerts have been affected and the tour will now start on Tuesday, September 17 at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, N.Y. The
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi revealed the title of his band’s new album on Tuesday night on board the Runaway to Paradise Mediterranean Cruise. Speaking to fans in the Norwegian Pearl’s intimate Stardust Theater, Bon Jovi shared that the new record will be titled: “Bon Jovi: 2020.” “It’s an election year,
Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, the fast-rising rights-management company run by Merck Mercuriadis, has raised another £51.1 million (around $62.8 million), the company announced today. Earlier in the day, the company had announced that it would place additional Ordinary Shares on the market. Combined with the initial $265 million it raised before the company debuted on
Yusuf, aka Cat Stevens, Signs with UTA – Variety You will be redirected back to your article in seconds August 27, 2019 9:51AM PT Singer-songwriter Yusuf, better known historically as Cat Stevens, has signed with United Talent Agency. Yusuf was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 and into the Songwriters
It’s coming up on two in the morning in an industrial warehouse complex outside Stockholm, and Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, Maverick Management partner and XO label CEO, who manages superstars The Weeknd and French Montana, is dealing with a major onstage malfunction just moments before a performance. The Mac laptop used by Montana’s DJ to power the rapper’s backing tracks has inexplicably died,
Singer/songwriter and prolific sideman Neal Casal died in the early hours of Monday, August 26, it was reported this morning on his Twitter and Instagram pages. He was 50. It’s with great sadness that we tell you Neal Casal has passed. As so many know, Neal was a gentle, soulful human who lived life through
The long-running San Francisco rock radio station KFOG will drop music and switch to sports and talk radio, parent company Cumulus Media announced yesterday. On Sept. 6, the station, which the San Francisco Chronicle called “the last commercial relic of the free-form album-oriented FM rock radio that San Francisco was once known for,” will change
August 27, 2019 7:49AM PT Meek Mill’s attorneys and prosecutors have worked out a deal that will see all the charges against him from a long-running 2007 case dropped. Mill pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to a misdemeanor gun charge and all of the other charges were dropped, according to CBS News. A judge accepted Mill’s
New Jersey saw its first MTV Video Music Awards this year, and the state repped hard with the cast of “The Sopranos” taking the stage and The Jonas Brothers performing off-site at legendary Asbury Park venue The Stone Pony. Fans celebrated the legacy of Missy Elliott as she was awarded with this year’s Video Vanguard
A$AP Rocky faces no further threat of imprisonment in Sweden after the prosecutor in his assault case announced Tuesday that he would not appeal the court’s decision to give the rapper a suspended sentence. The artist, whose real name is Rakim Myers, and two companions, Bladimir Corniel and David Rispers, were found guilty of assault in Sweden
There were some strangely mixed messages in the opening minutes of the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. Taylor Swift kicked things off with all the rainbow flamboyance she and a troupe of drag queens could muster for her tolerance-and-pride anthem “You Need to Calm Down.” This was immediately succeeded by host Sebastian Maniscalco, inspirer of
In court papers filed late Monday, an attorney for Universal Music Group refuted the claims of the final remaining artist filing suit over masters lost in a 2008 fire, providing evidence in the form of emails that the artist in question, Soundgarden, had been informed that masters were lost. The company requests the dismissal of
To no one’s surprise, BTS – one of the world’s most famous boy bands – won the MTV Video Music Award’s inaugural award for Best K-pop group for their song “Boy With Luv.” The septet didn’t attend the ceremony to accept their Moon Man trophy. While the new category appears to be a nod to
To say that Taylor Swift brought a lot of plotlines with her to the VMAs is one of the understatements of a hardly understated evening: There’s “Lover,” the critically praised new album; there’s the less-critically praised feud with Justin Bieber manager Scooter Braun, who purchased the rights to Swift’s back catalog; there’s the reunion with
The MTV Video Music Awards are officially kicking off on Monday night. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco will serve as host for the ceremony, airing live on MTV from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The biggest nominees to watch out for include Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, who each received 10 nods. Billie Eilish, Lil Nas
The 2019 MTV Video Music Awards have a packed lineup prepared: Taylor Swift will do two songs to open the show, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes will perform their spicy duet “Señorita” live for the first time, the Jonas Brothers will pay homage to their New Jersey hometown with a nostalgic performance and Lizzo is
August 26, 2019 1:12PM PT It will surprise no one who’s spent more than a few hours in the U.S. that YouTube’s No. 1 song of the summer is Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” — but, maybe not surprisingly it seems the rapper and the song’s down-home charm doesn’t translate quite as strongly internationally.
Harlean Harris Wilson, widow of the legendary R&B singer Jackie Wilson and a top model in the 1950s and ’60s, died Saturday at 81. She passed away less than two week before she was to represent her late husband, who died in 1984, at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony Sept. 4. “Though we are
August 26, 2019 10:35AM PT Planned Parenthood unveiled a list of musicians — ranging from Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande to the Foo Fighters and Halsey — over the weekend who are “standing with Planned Parenthood” in a new social media campaign aimed at boosting their mailing list via a petition they hope music fans