Joni Mitchell made a surprise appearance for a full set Sunday at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival, joining Brandi Carlile. Two ladies were joined by Blake Mills, Taylor Goldsmith, Marcus Mumford, Wynonna Judd, Lucius’ Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and others. Over 13 songs, Mitchell sat around on couches on-stage playing a mix of her favorite oldies ('Why Do Fools Fall in Love', 'Love Potion No. 9') as well as an array of her masterpieces. Rolling Stone reports from the fest.

Pearl Jam have cancelled their show in Vienna, after Eddie Vedder developed throat problems following an outdoor gig in Paris. On Thursday, the band also nixed their show scheduled for Friday in Prague, the Guardian reports. The band explained that "due to the extreme circumstances at the last outdoor site outside of Paris (heat, dust, and smoke from the fires) our singer Ed Vedder’s throat was left damaged". Also from the PJ camp: Eddie Vedder booted a fan out of a Pearl Jam concert in Zurich after they started a fight with another attendee - "you’re out of here. Violence is not allowed”, Vedder said.

There were 131.3 million album-sale-equivalent units of ‘Current’ music registered in the United States in the first six months of this year, down by nearly 2 million units, or 1.4%, on the 133.1 million from the first half of the prior year, MBW reports. Total Album Consumption of all music in the United States (that’s ‘Current’ + ‘Catalog’) grew by 9.3% YoY in H1 2022 to 475.4 million. Meaning the popularity of ‘Catalog’ music grew considerably, up by 14.0% YoY to 344.1 million TAC units. ‘Catalog’ took a 72.4% market share in H1 2022, as ‘Current’ music’s share fell by a full 3% to just 27.6%. 'Catalog' is all music older than 18 months.

The New Cue has shared an excerpt from Ted Kessler's new book 'Paper Cuts' describing how he lost his Doc Marten's boots in Paris metro: "'Where are you from?’ asks one.
‘London,’ I say, ‘but I live here.’
‘Ah, OK,’ says the mod-skin. He sizes me up. ‘Is that where you get those Docs from?’
‘Yes.’...
‘Let’s swap.’
I look at his feet. He has massive old canvas army boots on, covered in stains. They look terrible.
‘No thanks.’"

Glenn Horowitz, Edward Kosinski and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi have been accused of attempting to sell handwritten notes and lyrics by The Eagles’ co-founder Don Henley, the Variety reports. Officials estimated that notes and lyrics of ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ are worth over $1 million. Henley has been trying to recover the documents for years after they were stolen in the 1970s and according to officials, pawned off to Horowitz in 2005. Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinski then allegedly began selling to various auction houses, as well as trying to coerce Henley into buying them back.

Crosby, Stills & Nash have returned to Spotify after a five-month boycott, which they started by joining Neil Young’s protest against the platform—citing misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines. Other artists such as Joni Mitchell, Crazy Horse’s Nils Lofgren, and India.Arie also joined the boycott in the winter, Graham Nash said in a statement that Spotify has “taken a positive step by adding a Covid content advisory to podcasts that include a conversation about Covid, directing listeners to a Covid information hub", Paste Magazine reports. Crosby, Stills & Nash appear to be the first of the high-profile departures to return to the platform.

R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being found guilty of all counts of racketeering and sex trafficking against him at his Brooklyn federal trial last year, CNN reports. Prior to sentencing, seven of Kelly’s victims addressed the court - “I am a representation of every woman, boy, child, man that you have ever afflicted with your deplorable, inexplicable acts and with that I leave you with yourself, Robert Sylvester Kelly” - “Angela” said to Kelly - “You used your fame and power to groom and coach underage boys and girls for your own sexual gratification". “These crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years” - judge Ann Donnelly told the defendant announcing the prison sentence of 30 years for Kelly, five years more than the minimum prosecutors sought.

On Friday (June 24), a free livestream performance from the Backstreet Boys was watched by 45 million viewers in China via WeChat, the social app owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, MBW reports. It was the highest-attended livestream concert on WeChat by an international artist. An additional element to the event saw UK-headquartered Driift, a producer and promoter of live streamed music events, produce a guest appearance on the livestream from Irish boy band Westlife. Broadcast from Smock Alley in Dublin and directed by Chris Howe and, the Driift-produced livestream saw the two boy bands duet remotely on the Backstreet Boys’ hit 'I Want It That Way' and Westlife’s 'My Love'.

Lizzo has decided to change the lyrics in 'Grrrls' the latest single from her forthcoming LP 'Special', after receiving criticism for using ableist language. The song’s original lyrics, “Hold my bag, bitch, hold my bag/Do you see this shit? I’ma spaz,” have been changed to: “Do you see this shit? Hold me

With a beat inspired by South Asian music seasoned with a dash of South LA, and lyrics [in Urdu] that demand respect from oppressors, 'Rozi' will make anyone feel like a superhero" - Consequence presents the new single by Eva B. She has been called Pakistan's first female rapper. who decided to keep her face and identity hidden.

Pitchfork this year adds a new list - a mid-June rundown of favorite albums of the first half of the year. This one is alphabetical and not ranked, and consists of personal picks rather than the results of a vote. The list includes some big pop names like the Weeknd, and Bad Bunny, some indie darlings like Animal Collective, and Angel Olsen, and a few underground names, like Astrid Sonne, Undeath, and Soul Glo.

42-year-old Daniel Lucey with the word "GOD" on his shirt tried to burn down the Satanic Temple building on Bridge Street in Salem, MA on Friday night, the Boston Globe reports. Lucey has since confessed to traveling to Salem with the intention of lighting the temple on fire, and that he intended for it to be a hate crime.

y has announced six new awards and rule changes for the Grammy Awards, including the Songwriter of the Year award. Grammys for the next year will also include Special Merit Award for Best Song for Social Change, as well the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, Best Americana Performance, and Best Alternative Music Performance.

Mariah Carey is being sued by New Orleans songwriter Andy Stone for $20 million in damages over her holiday hit 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'. Stone alleges that he co-wrote a song with the same title five years prior to Carey’s release. Stone’s song was recorded by his country-pop band Vince Vance & the Valiants and released in 1989. Carey’s single was issued on her 1994 Merry Christmas LP. Pamela Koslyn, a Los Angeles attorney specializing in music and intellectual property rights, noted there are 177 works, many of them musical compositions, with 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' as the title. “Song titles aren’t entitled to copyright protection” Koslyn added, Deadline reports. Apart from the title, it is truly hard to find similarities between the two songs.

The Face was at the Flesh, "intimate festival", which "took place in a leafy location just north of London". The - "tunes were mostly hard-hitting techno, with an indulgent dose of crowd-pleasing edits thrown in". The looks - "pretty amazing". Check out the photos.

Next week, July 8 The Weeknd will play the first date of his ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ world tour at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, MBW reports. His stadium tour will be “the first global concert tour to integrate Web 3.0 technology for an enhanced fan experience”, with cryptocurrency exchange Binance named as the tour’s official sponsor. To mark the launch of the tour, Binance says it will donate $2 million to the XO Humanitarian Fund, which is administered by World Food Program USA.

“We are shocked and filled with overwhelming sadness with the untimely passing of our dear friend, family member, and bandmate Andy ‘Fletch’ Fletcher” Depeche Mode announced in a statement today regarding the passing of their founding member and keyboardist. Fletcher served many roles for Depeche Mode behind the scenes, including acting as the band’s de facto manager, and spokesperson (Rolling Stone).

The biggest music streaming providers in China, Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music, added 4.0 million paying music users quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2022, and 7.8 million respectively. TME’s official ‘paying online music’ user-base now stands at 80.2 million customers, while NetEase now stands at 36.7 million customers. Spotify net-added 2 million paying customers to its service in Q1 2022, and now stands at 182 million Premium subscribers outside of China. When it comes to finance, however, the numbers go in the Swedish company's direction - its Premium subs business generated €2.379 billion (USD $2.67bn) in the first quarter of 2022. Tencent Music online music services revenue fell to USD $413 million, while NetEase Cloud Music’s online music services generated USD $140m. MBW has all the numbers and comparisons.

Rolling Stone presents the new David Bowie documentary 'Moonage Daydream', Brett Morgen’s "extraordinary portrait of the late artist as cosmic philosopher, glam trickster, and sage-like cypher via a stream-of-consciousness blend of vintage performances, rare archival clips and career-spanning interviews... For Morgen, the project would turn out to be a five-year odyssey that included a near-death experience, a hobo-like trip through New Mexico, and a radical rethinking of what it means to balance the professional and the personal when making a music doc".

Plenty of musicians on Time's list of 100 most influential people for 2022: Adele, Jazmine Sullivan, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner, Jon Batiste, Mary J. Blige, and Miranda Lambert. Check out the full list here.

Wovenhand shared a video for '8 of 9' from their latest album 'Silver Sash' - it's dark and dramatic, just like the song, with a nature touch in this case. Equally emotional, albeit much less dramatic, is Sun's Signature's new song 'Underwater'. The project led by Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser will release their self-titled EP in June.

Ricky Gardiner, a guitarist for Iggy Pop and David Bowie, has died aged 73, Pitchfork reports. Gardiner is best known for his close collaboration with Iggy Pop, with whom he co-wrote 'The Passenger'. In addition to Iggy Pop’s 'Lust for Life', Gardiner was a significant presence on David Bowie’s Low and Tonight.

Groups representing songwriters, music publishers and record labels have reached an agreement about mechanical royalty rates in the US paid to songwriters for sales of physical music, as well as downloads, MBW reports. Since 2006, the mechanical rate paid to publishers/songwriters for music purchased on a physical disc (or a download) has been set at 9.1 cents per track. The new settlement proposes a 32% increase to that current royalty rate, to 12 cents per track. The agreement also provides that these songwriter royalties will increase automatically each year of the rate period in connection with the inflation.

Regine, who claimed to have invented the term “discotheque” as she ran a nightclub empire that stretched from Paris to Los Angeles, died Sunday at 92, Vulture reports. Regine opened her first nightclub in Paris’s Latin Quarter in the 1950s, installing turntables and disc jockeys instead of the usual juke boxes. Thus was born a new format, she claimed, the “discotheque.” Her venues included “Regine’s” in New York in the 1970s, and others in Miami, Rio de Janeiro and Los Angeles. At its height, her nightlife empire had 22 venues.

Experimental music newsletter Tone Glow selects 31 albums and songs from the first quarter of 2022. An interesting selection of albums by ASP Doze, Voivod, Toshimaru Nakamura, Bengt Berger, Matches and others. Check the full list here!

"When you enter into that space, try to be mindful of what's happening and pay attention and don't talk" - Big Thief's Adriane Lenker says in her recent Instagram video about the need for silence at concerts - "There is a real magic that happens when there is... actual silence."

Drake has generated more U.S. on-demand streams in 2021 than the total number of pre-1980 records combine, according to Billboard. The Luminate numbers show that tracks from the ’50s to 1979 made up only 0.6% of streams last year, whereas Drake, whose first album came out 15 years ago, was responsible for 0.8% of all streams in 2021. Across the 988.154 billion U.S. streams from 2021, the catalog business made up 69.8% of the album consumption units in 2021, a 4.1% increase from 2020. Of that number, 90% of these units were from records relea

These days it might be harder than ever for young bands, and not only because of astronomical gas prices and rising food costs. The pandemic has been devastating for the live-music industry, for artists and behind-the-scenes workers alike. Many bands were forced off the road for much of the past two years; now that they’re back, they could test positive and be forced to cancel a string of tour dates - Rolling Stone reports on the issue.

A new David Bowie documentary 'Moonage Daydream', directed by Brett Morgen (best known for the Kurt Cobain doc, Montage of Heck) and the first Bowie doc to have the approval of the late musician’s estate, is set to screen at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The film is described as both a concert documentary and an “experimental cinematic odyssey” that will track Bowie’s life and career, delving into his work as a musician, but also his multidisciplinary approach to his craft. Ethan Coen’s doc, 'Jerry L