Music

Taylor Swift donated $1 million to Tennessee residents affected by the deadly tornadoes that hit communities on Dec 9. A barrage of tornadoes and thunderstorms hit regions of northern Tennessee over the weekend, leaving more than 50 injured and multiple buildings destroyed, per reports by CNN. Swift, whose career started in Hendersonville, Tennessee, responded by making

Nearly two years after the idea became a reality, Verswire – a venture capital model alternative for signing musicians – has announced its forthcoming publishing arm, set to launch in 2024 in partnership with Kobalt Music Group. With a $12.3 million investment from E.O.A. Productions (Enoch K. Osei-Acheampong and Nicole A. Parke) and idobi Radio,

It’s the end of the year and Vevo has crunched the numbers to find out which music videos and artists saw the highest viewership on the platform. After releasing multiple albums, touring the world with record-breaking numbers and launching a concert film, Taylor Swift was named Vevo’s “Most Watched Artist” in the United States with

Kanye West waits on no one. Fans experienced this firsthand at the world premiere of “Vultures,” his long-awaited collaborative album with Ty Dolla Sign under the name ¥$. Just a day after he premiered cuts from the project guerilla-style at a Jamaican restaurant in Miami, he took over Wynwood Marketplace in the same city for

South Korean boy band Ateez has the No. 1 album in the United States this week, landing its first No. 1 record with their sophomore set “The World EP.Fin: Will.” The 12-song set had the equivalent of 152,000 sales, according to data provided by Luminate, and serves as the follow-up to the eight-member group’s June

Jeffrey Foskett, a musician familiar to Beach Boys fans for more than four decades as a presence in the touring bands led by both Brian Wilson and Mike Love, died Monday at age 67. He had been battling anaplastic thyroid cancer. Foskett, who was deemed the “vice principal of the Beach Boys” by its core

After much speculation on what Spotify’s updated payment model would actually look like, the streaming giant finally released a comprehensive breakdown in a blog post late last month. Although the post was titled Modernizing Our Royalty System to Drive an Additional $1 Billion toward Emerging and Professional Artists, emerging artists have been completely left out

SZA’s forthcoming album “Lana” — which started off as a deluxe edition of her multi-Grammy-nominated second full-length “SOS” but now may or may not be a separate release — has been in a state of flux ever since it was first conceived. But it apparently took a big step closer to completion on Sunday night, when the

Since hip-hop group the Roots launched its inaugural Roots Picnic in 2008, it’s mostly been confined to the collective’s hometown of Philadelphia. But next year, they plan on shifting it over to the West Coast. The Roots have partnered with Live Nation Urban for “Roots Picnic: Hip-Hop is the Love of My Life,” set to

“It feels good to be known so well,” sang Lucy Dacus in “True Blue,” a balladic anthem from Boygenius’ “The Record,” one of the key albums of 2023. That song was an ode to friendship, love and intimacy, of course. But that line speaks to how music fans feel about the records that really move

Nicki Minaj has announced the complete lineup for her 2024 “Pink Friday 2 World Tour.” Minaj will headline arena shows in North America and Europe, including appearances at Rolling Loud California and Dreamville Festival. This is her largest tour to date, and the full routing and ticketing information can be found below. Tickets will be

Considering the tragedy and devastation brought upon the United States by gun violence, it’s surprising that more musicians and artists aren’t working to fight it, but Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, Kevin Bacon and a number of others stepped up at a concert and discussion panel in New York last week sponsored by the nonprofits Artist

Variety Hitmaker of the Year SZA, Karol G and Peso Pluma are among the big honorees in the Recording Industry Association of America’s year-end tally and its “Class of 2023,” recognizing the top albums, singles and first-timers who earned their first Gold & Platinum certifications in 2023. Highlights include: SZA has the most certifications with

As the 50th anniversary of hip-hop comes to a close, the Recording Academy had one last trick up its sleeve to honor the pillars of the culture. The Academy joined forces with CBS for “A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop,” an aural spectacular that’s as much an ode to the culture as it

As expected, Ariana Grande has signed with Brandon Creed and his new Good World Management firm, sources close to the situation confirm to Variety. The news comes four months after sources confirmed that the singer had parted ways with longtime manager Scooter Braun who, apart from a period of several months in 2017, had managed her since

As the 50th anniversary of hip-hop comes to a close, the Recording Academy has one last trick up its sleeve to honor the pillars of the culture. The Academy joins forces with CBS for “A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop,” an aural spectacular that’s as much an ode to the culture as it

Laufey (pronounced Lay-vay) is captivating Gen Z by writing and singing music that almost sounds like it could be from Gen WWII. Go figure, and go marvel. But the 24-year-old has always instinctively known that a box is no place to be: She hails from Iceland, is of Asian heritage, and is in many ways

Lola Dee, a popular singer in the 1950s who toured with Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante and Johnnie Ray, has died. She was 95. The pop singer, who was signed to Columbia and Mercury labels in the ’50s, died of natural causes in Hinsdale, Illinois at a nursing facility, as announced by her publicist and CD

The Weeknd is doing a Fortnite dance as you shred Queens of the Stone Age’s “Go With the Flow” on an Xbox controller. No, this is not a fever dream. It’s the very real Fortnite Festival, Epic’s new, free music video game built inside the world of Fortnite. Developed in tandem with Epic subsidiary Harmonix,

There was dancing in the aisles, Nick Cave singing “A Rainy Night in Soho” and Irish musicians Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill performing “Fairytale of New York” as mourners turned out Friday for the funeral of Shane MacGowan. Bono and Bob Geldof were also in attendance, while Johnny Depp was one of the pallbearers. The

There was a moment in the run-up to the weekend before Thanksgiving when something suddenly shifted for Tate McRae. She released the video for “Exes” on November 16 to a jolting reaction: Who is that girl whipping her hair and hitting that choreography in a bathroom straight out of a “Saw” movie? At that point,

U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Peter Welch (D-VT) have introduced the Fans First Act, which would help “address flaws in the current live event ticketing system by increasing transparency in ticket sales, protecting consumers from fake or dramatically overpriced tickets, and

Taylor Swift‘s huge year just claimed a new record: Her “Eras” Tour generated an estimated $1.04 billion in gross ticket sales — the first tour to ever hit the billion-dollar milestone — according to the live-music trade publication Pollstar. Swift’s tour topped all previous tours in ticket sales for the 12-month period of Nov. 17,

It’s been seven years since “The X Factor” runner-up Rebecca Ferguson last put out a record. Despite her hiatus from the industry, Ferguson never walked away from music, instead using her downtime to craft songs in a more spontaneous way. “It was me organically calling up people saying, ‘Should we do a session?’ over seven

Ahead of his first concert in Brazil, Peso Pluma recruited Brazillian singer Anitta for a sultry new reggaeton single called “Bellakeo.” On Thursday, Peso released the song’s dark and sensual official music video featuring Anitta and a crew of dancers dressed in all black performing a ritual on a man. In “Bellakeo,” which loosely translates

50 Cent‘s production company will be releasing a documentary about Sean “Diddy” Combs and the sexual assault allegations pointed against him. After the news of a fourth allegation of sexual assault against Combs was revealed, 50 Cent announced via X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday that proceeds from his upcoming documentary about Combs will go to

Sony Music Publishing Chairman/ CEO Jon Platt has been named the 2024 Grammy “Salute to Industry Icons” honoree, the Recording Academy and Clive Davis announced on Thursday. Platt will be honored at the Pre-Grammy Gala — aka the “Clive Party” — on Feb. 3, 2024, the night before the Grammys. “One of the most influential figures in the industry, Jon

After earworm-filled musical dramas “Once,” “Begin Again” and “Sing Street,” “Flora and Son” marks a notable first for writer-director John Carney: it’s the first time he wrote a song for a film that’s designed to underwhelm. “I always thought, what would it be like if you started a song and you just didn’t get the

Shortly after Halle Bailey and Rachel Zegler were crowned real-life Disney princesses, they met for the first time at a ball — the 2021 Met Gala, to be exact. It was the beginning not only of a beautiful friendship, but of a new era for Disney. Bailey became the first Black Ariel in Rob Marshall’s

The first image that the word ‘Bollywood’ conjures up is one of song and dance. And Netflix’s “The Archies” promises to be a prime example of that. “The Archies” is a 1960s-set feature film adaptation of the Archie comics, which are hugely popular on the Indian subcontinent. The musical drama is directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Akhtar