Music

Just one week after getting a big promotion within the Sony Music ranks, Sylvia Rhone has been tapped for a different kind of salute, with the announcement that she’ll be the honoree at this year’s City of Hope gala. The Spirit of Life Award that Rhone will pick up this fall went to retiring Warner/Chappell

April 30, 2019 7:35AM PT Downtown Music Publishing has signed a publishing administration and catalog marketing agreement for the George Gershwin catalog, the company announced today. The catalog is represented by the Godowsky family and Heyward Memorial Fund, respective successors to the historic American songwriter and “Porgy and Bess” authors DuBose and Dorothy Heyward. In

Tommy Brown, the songwriter-producer who’s notched multiple hit songs with Ariana Grande, including “Thank U, Next” and “7 Rings,” has partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) to launch Champagne Therapy Music Group. Under the global joint venture deal, Brown will sign and develop new artists to Champagne Therapy, which Brown describes as “the next step

iHeartMedia today announced that Taylor Swift, who last week released her blockbuster new single “Me,” will join the lineup for the 2019 iHeartRadio Wango Tango concert. She joins a lineup that includes the Jonas Brothers, Halsey, 5 Seconds of Summer, Zedd, Ally Brooke with Special Guest Tyga, Ava Max, Fletcher and Tomorrow X Together. The concert will be

Sarah Silverman is headed to the stage. Well, maybe not Silverman herself, but the story of the comedian is, at least. She gave an update on the musical based on her memoir, “The Bedwetter,” during a chat with Mike Birbiglia for the Tribeca Film Festival on Monday night. She revealed that the musical, which was

You get the idea that Jason Aldean is probably not the type of guy who intently studies his own press clippings. That may be a good thing today, because although he was the ostensible headliner for the third and final day of the 2019 Stagecoach Country Festival — and, to be sure, commanded by far

Queen frontman and “‘American Idol’ legend,” to quote host Ryan Seacrest, returned to where it all started to mentor the current season’s top eight finalists for a Queen-themed night of hits. It’s hard to believe that just 10 years ago, Lambert first performed with Queen on the “Idol” stage and began his journey with the

April 29, 2019 11:28AM PT Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy Award winner Kendrick Lamar has signed a long-term worldwide deal with BMI to represent his catalog of music.  Lamar joins Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith and labelmates SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Isaiah Rashad and Skiiiwalker at the performing rights organization. “We’re thrilled to welcome Kendrick to the

UPDATED: Dentsu Aegis, the Japanese financial partners of Woodstock 50, issued a statement on Monday morning saying that the company has “decided to cancel the festival.” In a statement to the Poughkeepsie Journal, a rep for the festival initially said “Woodstock 50 vehemently denies the festival’s cancellation and legal remedy will (be) sought”; however festival

The “Old Town Road” cut right through the Empire Polo Club as Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus made their first public appearance together singing the No. 1 smash at Stagecoach, providing a climax to Diplo’s festival-ending DJ set. Although heavily rumored and leaked, Cyrus and Lil Nas X popping in as the midnight

Churchill Downs Racetrack today announced that Grammy-winning Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles will sing the National Anthem at the 145th Kentucky Derby, presented by Woodford Reserve, on Saturday, May 4, 2019. Nettles, who attended Variety‘s Power of Women event in New York earlier this month, will also be a guest of the world-famous Barnstable Brown Derby

Of the three headliners at the 13th annual Stagecoach Country Music Festival, Sam Hunt had the greatest promise to offer some kind of much-needed surprise factor. Saturday, he was headlining the California desert gathering for the first time, and presumably with a lot of unreleased new music in the can, since he hasn’t had an album

Considering the amount of coverage spent on who is not playing the 50th edition of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the fact that Katy Perry was delivering her first full-length show since August seemed to get lost in the shuffle. Even without a full production Perry created a striking spectacle, one that was largely

April 27, 2019 8:48PM PT Bruce Springsteen was a surprise guest at the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival for a viewing of his documentary of clips culled from the Bruce Springsteen Archives Saturday at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park. The presentation featured rare performances of Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Bottom

Luke Bryan, who headlined the first night of the 2018 Stagecoach Festival, is still touring behind his “What Makes You Country” album. What does make him country, you may ask, if you haven’t heard the song of the same name, which offers a list of potential differentiators? The list is a pretty long one, but

Jay-Z and Nas, living hip-hop legends and former arch foes, stood side by side on the Webster Hall stage Friday night, after 10 fiery minutes of swapping some of their best verses. “I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to duplicate that again,” a tuxedo-clad Jay told the sold-out hometown crowd, about a third

April 26, 2019 3:45PM PT Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” ignited a wave of activism, and the network will explore the wide-reaching effects of the doc in a follow-up two-hour special, “Surviving R. Kelly: The Impact.” It will be hosted by journalist Soledad O’Brien and is set to debut Saturday, May 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

There’s a reason nightlife impresario John Terzian named his exclusive West Hollywood eatery “The Nice Guy” — it’s a perfect summation of his own stature in Los Angeles as the most approachable arbiter of late-night cool. The owner and co-founder of The H.Wood Group oversees an expansive slate of properties, including Bootsy Bellows on Sunset

Willie Nelson is about to turn 86, on either April 29 or 30, depending. (There’s an audio interview in which he explains the waffling. “I just do both days,” he says.) Meanwhile, in June, he’ll be releasing a new studio album, “Ride Me Back Home” — but just how far along that is into his

April 26, 2019 12:47PM PT The song’a fantastical video has already reached nearly 30 million views on YouTube. Taylor Swift fans have a lot to be happy about this week. After releasing the song “ME!” off her forthcoming album, alongside a sugary music video, it was announced that the global pop-star will open the 2019

Songwriter, producer and singer Richard Marx has signed a deal with BMG that includes a global recording contract for new music and his catalog. The announcement comes on the 30th anniversary of his multi-platinum album “Repeat Offender,” which yielded the hit ballad “‘Right Here Waiting.” A new album is planned for this fall, with a

Here’s an indisputable fact: Rob Thomas is an expert at his craft. As a songwriter who’s penned nearly a dozen hits with Matchbox Twenty, the band he co-founded in 1990 while barely out of his teens, and who’s moved through collaborations like 1999’s “Smooth” with Carlos Santana to his own solo career, launched in 2005

“Mystify” — a portrayal of charismatic INXS singer Michael Hutchence, who committed suicide in 1997 at the age of 37 — makes powerful use of family and personal footage to tell the story of a talented man beset by personal demons, but illuminates the influence of a serious head injury that he hid from the

In the new Broadway adaptation of Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic film “Beetlejuice,” teenager Lydia takes center stage alongside the titular gut-busting demon (Alex Brightman) to reflect the famed goth girl’s journey through Beetlejuice’s funhouse of death and disaster. “I think so many people connect to ‘Beetlejuice’ because it’s a story of outsiders, Lydia being

April 26, 2019 6:51AM PT As part of Sony’s earnings report for its 2018 fiscal year (which ended on March 31) the company’s music division showed mixed results, with recorded music revenues dropping around 4.5% to 426.9 billion yen ($3.82 billion) and overall revenue up just 1% to 795 billion yen ($7.2 billion). The company

Profits at Sony Pictures rose to $489 million for the financial year running to the end of March 2019. That compares with $376 million in the previous financial year. The pictures division result was achieved despite a fall in revenue. That dropped from $9.13 billion in the preceding financial year to $8.87 billion in the

Taylor Swift has been leaving Easter eggs for her fans, with clues about the title, themes, et al. of her new single. The video, as it turns out, is almost like diving into a literal basket of Easter eggs. The opening title card for “ME!” reads “directed by Dave Meyers and Taylor Swift,” but we

While listeners of SiriusXM’s E Street Radio got an advance listen — actually several advance listens — Bruce Springsteen didn’t officially drop his new single, “Hello Sunshine,” until midnight ET — and released an accompanying lyric video as well. While it’s great as far as lyric videos go, of course what really matters here is

You’d never want to reduce a Pink album strictly to the math, but the strength of her records tends to have a pretty strong correlation to two factors: the number of Max Martin/Shellback productions and the amount of F-bombs dropped. Now, put those two together, and it’s pure gold, but either one is a pretty

April 25, 2019 6:00PM PT High-spirited fun, wickedly good tunes and eye-popping visuals make this night of the living dead a scream. “Such a bold departure from the original source material!” wisecracks the odd-looking fellow sitting on a coffin at the start of the Broadway musical “Beetlejuice.” The weird, nasty and outrageous title character is