Nashville executive Sally Williams is leaving Opry Entertainment, where she rose to the top over a two-decade tenure there, to join Live Nation’s regional office as the president of Nashville music and business strategy, the company announced Monday. Live Nation said Williams will not only lead programming and marketing for their concerts in the area,
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In what’s become a broken record for music journalists everywhere, Woodstock 50 was once again denied a permit to hold its event, slated for Aug. 16 to 18, as a daytime festival at Vernon Downs in upstate New York. Previous attempts to convince the town of Vernon, on June 18 and July 3, were rejected
After five years of working together, London’s CODA Agency has formally become a part of Paradigm and will continue under its U.S. partner’s banner. The London office of what is now a fully integrated Paradigm will continue to be led by Alex Hardee, Tom Schroeder, James Whitting and Dave Hallybone. In a statement otherwise laden
July 22, 2019 1:00PM PT Mariah Carey has returned to CAA for representation worldwide after moving to UTA in 2015. Throughout her 30-year career, the five-time Grammy winner has released some of the best-selling albums of all time, including “Music Box,” which racked up more than 28 million in sales, and “Daydream,” which sold 20
Art Neville, one of the key figures of New Orleans music as a member of the Meters and later the Neville Brothers, died Monday. He was 81. Neville’s manager, Kent Sorrell, confirmed the death. “It was peaceful,” Sorrell told Nola.com. “He passed away at home with his adoring wife Lorraine by his side. He toured
Kobalt has signed Roddy Ricch to a wide-ranging exclusive worldwide deal in which the company will have full administration of the rapper, singer, songwriter and producer’s catalog, as well as publishing, creative services and synch for his future works. Ricch is a relative newcomer, first emerging onto the music scene in 2017 with the release
Kenya Barris and Kid Cudi have set an adult animated music series at Netflix with an added twist. The series will be based on Cudi’s upcoming album, “Entergalactic,” which is set to be released by Republic Records. The series will showcase music from the new album, which is said to follow a young man on
July 22, 2019 6:55AM PT While the problems surrounding the troubled Woodstock 50 festival have certainly dominated conversation about the forthcoming anniversary of the original festival next month, cofounder Michael Lang is scheduled to take some time to look back at a pair of events held at the Morrison Hotel Galleries, in Los Angeles and
Roc Nation has named Shari Bryant and Omar Grant co-presidents of the Roc Nation Label, the company announced today. The two will lead the Roc Nation team to develop strategies for signed artists while continuing to build the talent roster, according to the announcement. “There is no better way to celebrate my 20th anniversary in the
July 22, 2019 4:00AM PT The band is releasing a remastered “Bohemian” clip and sponsoring a new user-generated version to commemorate the milestone. “Easy come, easy go” — that’s a phrase that has never applied to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” one of the most enduring recordings of the 20th century. The Queen classic just set a record
Would it surprise you to learn that, when it comes to the oft-cited gender imbalance in country music, Brandi Carlile has … thoughts? She’s put her money where her mouth is by forming a new supergroup, the Highwomen, in which she’s enlisted three fellow singers whose ties to Nashville are just a little closer than
Hugh Jackman is out to prove he truly is the greatest showman. On Friday and Saturday night, Jackman’s “The Man. The Music. The Show.” world tour stopped in Los Angeles for a sold-out two nights at the Hollywood Bowl. Ten years ago, Jackman hosted the 2009 Oscars just a few blocks south of the venue at
About half way through Queen and Adam Lambert’s Saturday night show at the Forum in Inglewood, guitarist Brian May took the stage solo to perform a few numbers. He began by acknowledging that day’s 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, as the video screen behind him streamed a real-time replay of the Apollo
R. Kelly has been ordered brought to New York for his arraignment on racketeering charges that allege he recruited young girls for sexual abuse at concerts across the country, according to the Chicago Tribune. The charges are part of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against the singer that have been filed this year. Kelly, who
From alt-country hero to anime producer, Grammy winner Sturgill Simpson is broadening his horizons. Appearing on a panel Saturday night at Comic-Con, Simpson announced an animated Netflix film, “Sound & Fury,” that he’s producing and wrote the original story for, to be accompanied by a simultaneously released album this fall he describes as “sleazy, steamy
“I was singing with Garth Brooks! I’m freaking out!” said Blake Shelton, shortly after joining his fellow Okie on stage in Boise, Idaho Friday night. Shelton had flown out to the first of Brooks’ two nights at Albertsons Stadium to shoot a live music video for “Dive Bar,” the recently recorded duet that Brooks just
Cara Delevingne and Orlando Bloom’s love affair may be at the center of the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series “Carnival Row,” but the British actress doesn’t want viewers to assume her faerie character is heterosexual. “I’m a pansexual faerie,” Delevingne told Variety during an exclusive one-on-one interview at Comic-Con adding that there are other queer
Singer/songwriter Ryan Adams, who was blasted with accusations of sexual misconduct earlier this year, including inappropriate texting with a minor, re-emerged on social media with a long post early Saturday. “I have a lot to say. I am going to. Soon,” he wrote. “Because the truth matters. I know who I am. What I am.
July 19, 2019 6:07PM PT The rebrand replaces “A-List: Hip-Hop.” Apple Music announced the launch of “Rap Life,” a new global playlist focusing on contemporary rap artists and culture. It replaces the former “The A-List: Hip-Hop” playlist. Said Ebro Darden, Apple Music’s Global Editorial Head of Hip-Hop and R&B: “We flipped it to dig deeper
First among the many projects listed at the beginning of New York Music Month in June was a WNYE radio show and podcast called CityFM that promised to “explore the city’s music culture, emerging artists and trends, and upcoming events told through the lens of what’s happening around the city in Summer 2019.” And while
In one of the more surreal moments from a presidency filled with few not-surreal moments, President Trump spoke out today in support of rapper A$AP Rocky, who has been jailed in Sweden for more than two weeks after an altercation with fans he said were harassing him. “A$AP Rocky is a situation in Sweden, a
Representatives for Live Nation, the world’s largest live-entertainment company and owner of Ticketmaster, confirmed that it bypassed conventional channels and directly placed thousands of concert tickets on the secondary market upon artists’ request, in an article published in Billboard. In a statement shared with Variety, the company acknowledged that it has facilitated the transfer of
Showtime’s documentary series “Shangri-La” insists it is not a biographical documentary on uber-producer Rick Rubin, and it’s not meant as a four-hour advertisement for Rubin’s legendary Malibu studio, after which the four-part series is named … but it feels like a little bit of both those things. “Shangri-La” is primarily filmed at the studio where
July 19, 2019 8:23AM PT Harry Styles was so ready to get rid of his sleekly appointed pied-à-terre above Los Angeles’s perennially chic Sunset Strip, he’s taken a huge loss on the property, selling the multi-level contemporary after more than two years on the market for $6 million. That’s a pearl-clutching $870,000 less than the
July 19, 2019 8:05AM PT Katy Perry took the stand Thursday and testified that she had never heard the song “Joyful Noise” before she was accused of infringing on its copyright, according to ABC 7 in Los Angeles. Christian hip-hop artist Marcus Gray and the song’s co-writers claim that Perry’s 2013 track “Dark Horse” uses
The country supergroup the Highwomen have dropped their first video, for the just-released debut single, “Redesigning Women,” and it’s even more of a cluster of exclusively female country stars than the core quartet itself. Joining members Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires are such familiar figures as Wynonna Judd, Lauren Alaina, Cam,
Despite the diplomatic efforts of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, the Trump Administration’s efforts to procure A$AP Rocky’s release from a Swedish jail have been as effective as the rest of its foreign policy: The rapper and two associates will be held for another week in pretrial detention to allow police to finish investigating a
Primary Wave Music Publishing has acquired an interest in Dave Navarro’s music publishing catalog, master revenue streams, and writer’s share royalties, the company announced today. Navarro is credited as a songwriter on such hit songs as Jane’s Addiction “Been Caught Stealing” and “Jane Says” as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Aeroplane.” Said the
July 18, 2019 12:04PM PT Kanye West and Kim Kardashian lobbied President Trump to help release A$AP Rocky from jail in Sweden, a source close to the situation confirms to Variety. The news was first reported by TMZ. A$AP Rocky (real name: Rakim Myers) has been behind bars in the country since July 2 after
For better or worse, Woodstock 50 isn’t giving up on Vernon Downs, despite being rejected twice already: The producers have applied for another permit to hold the festival at Vernon Downs, according to the Utica Observer Dispatch. Town Attorney Vincent Rossi confirmed the application was submitted Wednesday. This is the festival’s third application; previous applications