Pitchfork made a selection of 11 best new music books. Among them: 'A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance' by Hanif Abdurraqib because of "language that evokes possibility; memoir that is both vulnerable and instructive; cultural analysis that deftly rejects linear historicizing; unlikely connections that tilt a reader’s understanding of the world"; 'Crying in H Mart', the debut book from Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner - "a gutting music memoir disguised as literary mukbang"; 'In Defense of Ska' by Aaron Carner "is a lovingly written defense of a vibrant, diverse musical underground that stayed afloat against all odds".

Adele had a simple request when it came to her new album, ’30’: listen to the songs in the order she presented them. The British superstar’s wish was heard by Spotify when the music streaming giant agreed to remove its default shuffle feature which plays songs in random order, NPR reports. It expanded beyond Adele - a quick review by Gizmodo of other artists’ albums (Ed Sheeran, BTS, Blackpink, Taylor Swift) on the platform also found that the shuffle option was gone and that albums were played in order by default. The shuffle option could however be activated in the platform player.

Alewya shares a hard-hitting reggae song ‘Dragon’ of her new EP; Mitski goes cold & clubby on 'The Only Heartbreaker'; Nils Frame shares a beautiful lullaby ‘Late’; Robert Plant & Alison Krauss have a new album out, with the Calexico cover ‘Quattro (World Drifts In)’ serving as a lovely and warm opening to it.

Spotify has announced it will make a new Lyrics feature available to all global users, both Free and Premium, across platforms, The Verge reports. The feature is powered by lyrics provider Musixmatch. Lyrics will be available across platforms from the “Now Playing” view or bar, depending on the platform. On mobile, users can swipe up from the “Now Playing” screen to see the track’s lyrics scroll by in real time as the song is playing. On the desktop app, you can click the microphone icon from the “Now Playing” bar instead. And on the Spotify TV app, you’ll navigate to the top-right corner of the “Now Playing” view to enable Lyrics from the lyrics button.

Camilo took home three awards for three separate songs at last night's Latin Grammys, as well as an award for Best Pop Vocal Album, Grammy.com reports. Juan Luis Guerra also took home four awards, including one for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Rubén Blades came away with some of the most important awards of the night, including Album of the Year for 'Salswing!' and Person of the Year. Song of the Year went to 'Patria y Vida' by Cuban conglomerate Yotuel, Gente De Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo & El Funky; an unusual choice, given the Latin Recording Academy's hesitance to promote explicitly political content. CNN brings photos from the ceremony.

Celebrated rock photographer Mick Rock, once known as "The Man Who Shot the Seventies", has dies aged 72, NME reports. He worked as David Bowie's official photographer during Bowie's glam-rock years, and also shot Ozzy Osbourne, Pink Floyd and their former singer Syd Barrett, T-Rex's Marc Bolan and the Sex Pistols. Rock's famous album covers included a shot of Queen with their faces lit up against a black background for 'Queen II'; the stark black-and-white photo for Reed's Transformer'; and a shirtless Iggy Pop for The Stooges' 'Raw Power'.

"71% of musicians polled in the Help Musicians survey said they suffered from anxiety, 69% said they battled depression, 57% said they went untreated, and 53% said they had a hard time finding the right treatment.  In response to a rash of suicides by musicians and the pandemic’s crushing blow to many an artist’s livelihood, new organizations and efforts within the music community have begun to step forward" - Please Kill Me steps into the sensitive issue of mental health in punk and metal music.

Indie rap star Young Dolph was shot and killed Wednesday in his hometown of Memphis while buying cookies, when a gunman drove up and shot him through the window, the New York Times reports. He was 36 years old. Stereogum insists "Dolph always rapped in a booming, authoritative, no-nonsense style. He was slick and funny, and he recalled earlier generations of street-rap".

TIDAL is planning to launch a user-centric royalties system for a new $19.99 HiFi Plus membership option, Music Business Worldwide reports. Starting in 2022, the music streaming service is planning to adopt what it calls a 'Fan-centered royalties' approach where royalties attributed to HiFi Plus subscribers will be paid based on their individual streaming activity as opposed to the industry-standard method of aggregating streams and paying out to artists from a pool at the end of a payment period. TIDAL has also launched monthly direct-to-artist payments, which will see a percentage of HiFi Plus subscribers' membership fees directed towards their top streamed artist. TIDAL was acquired by Jack Dorsey's fintech firm Square earlier this year for over $300 million.

Tom Morello, Mannequin Pussy, Speedy Ortiz, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, Jeff Rosenstock, Anjimile are among 200 artists who signed off on an open letter against the palm-scanning technology from Amazon for entry to venues. Critics worry implementing palm scanners at shows comes with serious privacy and safety concerns for concertgoers. Rolling Stone reports on the issue.

Metallica has announced the opening of The Metallica Black Box which will offer an unprecedented and ongoing deep dive into every era of Metallica from the early 1980s garage days up to its present status as hard rock stars. The project debited with The Black Album Exhibition, the Black Box, Loudwire reports.

ABBA earn their highest charting album ever on the Billboard 200 with their first album in 39 years, as 'Voyage' debuts at No. 2 on the chart, Billboard reports. 'Voyage' starts with 82,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. Of that sum, album sales comprise 78,000, making it the top-selling album of the week and the largest sales week for an album by a group in 2021. Another big feat on Billboard 200 chart this week - Summer Walker earns her first No. 1 album as the singer’s second studio LP, 'Still Over It', arrives atop the list with 166,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. It marks both the first R&B album by a woman to top the Billboard 200 in more than five years and the largest streaming week ever for an R&B album by a woman, Billboard reports.

Venezuela's network of youth orchestras organized a world records attempt at Venezuela’s military academy Saturday where thousands of musicians, mostly children and adolescents, played with a single goal: setting the record as the world’s largest orchestra, Deutsche Welle reports. The musicians performed a roughly 10-minute Tchaikovsky piece 'Slavic March' outdoors under the watchful eyes of independent supervisors with the job of verifying that more than 8,097 instruments were playing simultaneously, which would break the current record. The Guinness World Records will determine within 10 days whether a record was set.

Rolling Stone conducted a 9-months investigation on Marilyn Manson based on court documents and more than 55 new interviews. They found he "conditioned women through flattery and dark humor before introducing a pattern of abuse that allegedly included whipping, carving initials into skin, forced confinement, and rape. Some accusers allege that he plied them with drugs and alcohol, controlled their eating and sleeping habits, and held them captive emotionally and physically until they submitted to his will". A disturbing story on power and abuse of it.

18-year old Kid Laroi has scooped the top prize in the Australian 2021 National Indigenous Music awards, Sidney Morning Herald reports. Kid Laroi, who is now based in Los Angeles, took home the artist of the year award, beating nominees Sycco, Birdz, Miiesha, Baker Boy and Jessica Mauboy. JK-47 claims award for debut album, Budjerah crowned best new talent and Miiesha wins song of the year for 'Damaged'.

The full list of NIMA winners:

Artist Of The Year: The Kid LAROI

Album Of The Year: JK-47 – ‘Made For This’

Song Of The Year: Miiesha – ‘Damaged’

Best New Talent of the Year: Budjerah

Best Film Clip Of The Year: Baker Boy (Feat. Yirrmal) – ‘Ride’

Indigenous Language Award Of The Year: Guwanbal Gurruwiwi and Netanela Mizrahi – ‘The Djari Project’

Community Clip Of The Year: Kakadu Collective & Victor Rostron – ‘Mayali’

Archie Roach Foundation Award: J-Milla

aylor Swift's re-recording 'Red (Taylor’s Version)' smashed the record for the most-streamed album in a day by a female artist on Spotify with more than 90.8 million streams around the globe, Billboard reports. That number only surpasses Swift’s own 'folklore', which previously held the record at 80.6 million streams upon its surprise July 2020 release. Taylor also earned the distinction as the most-streamed female artist in a single day in Spotify's history with more than 122.9 million streams.

Abba's long-awaited 'Voyage' - their first album of new material for 40 years - shot straight to number one on the UK album chart, earning them the biggest opening week of sales for any album in four years, the UK Official Charts reports. Its 204,000 first-week chart sales is the highest since Ed Sheeran's 'Divide'. Aside from Abba, Sheeran and One Direction, only Adele's '25' has breached the 200,000 barrier for first-week sales in the past decade. 'Voyage' is also the fastest-selling vinyl release of the century, overtaking the Arctic Monkeys' 'Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino' from 2018.

Whet Records – Warner Music Group‘s pan-Asian dance label in China - is launching a ‘metaverse group’ consisting of four virtual characters, Music Business Worldwide reports. 10:22 PM, which UMG refers to as a “next-gen Web3 label”, is getting into the world of non-fungible tokens and virtual artists simultaneously, with the launch of the new group, called KINGSHIP. The characters are from Bored Ape Yacht Club, which UMG says is one of the most successful non-fungible token (NFT) projects of all time. KINGSHIP was formed by 10:22PM’s founder Celine Joshua, who according to UMG “engineered the landmark, first-ever exclusive agreement to create a metaverse group”.

Britney Spears was freed from her conservatorship during a landmark court hearing on Friday, where a Los Angeles judge decided to grant her request for termination of the 13-year-long conservatorship, the New York Times reports. Judge Brenda Penny's decision came after Spears and both of her parents, Jamie and Lynne, filed petitions in support of the dissolution of the conservatorship.

R.E.M.'s frontman made a list of music that was crucial to him at certain points in his life. The list is eclectic, folding in bubblegum pop, unvarnished folk, grunge, electronic music, and more. Pitchfork brings Stipe's music time-line.

Independent US label, distributor, and publisher EMPIRE has paid a $1 million advance entirely in Bitcoin to Atlanta-based artist and cryptocurrency investor Money Man ahead of the release of his new album 'Blockchain', which is out on Friday. EMPIRE says its payment to Money Man marks the first advance paid entirely in Bitcoin to an artist, by a record label. The transaction was made via mobile payments platform Cash App, which also recently launched Cash App Studios, an initiative aimed at funding artists’ projects. Music Business Worldwide has the whole story.

British collector Steve Goldman, who owns about 300 records that can lay claim to having some of the world’s worst cover art, is staging an exhibition of the Worst Album Covers in the World. Goldman is raising money for charity with his exhibition. Guardian reports on the funny story.

John Coltrane’s album 'A Love Supreme' has reached one million sales in the United States, 56 years after its release, Variety reports. 'A Love Supreme' is the first jazz LP of the 1960s to achieve platinum certification, also the first Coltrane’s platinum record. 'A Love Supreme' was recorded in one session on December 9, 1964 at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Coltrane enlisted drummer Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner, and bassist Jimmy Garrison for the iconic recording, which was originally released by Impulse! in 1965.

"A new wave of Kashmiri musicians are giving voice to their reality, with artists like Ali Saffudin, Alif and Ramooz bringing rock into the fray. The hip-hop scene especially has seen tremendous growth in the last couple of years with the advent of rappers like Qafilah, Ahmer, SXR and the duo SOS (Straight Outta Srinagar), who sing about living in the shadow of violence" - the Independent looks into the new wave of protest music from the unstable region.

Andy Barker, the longtime member of Manchester electronic music group 808 State, has died at the age of 53, NME reports. The band confirmed the news on social media, saying he died “after a short period of illness”. 808 State achieved commercial success when their song 'Pacific State' was played on BBC Radio One. 808 State continued their music career by releasing five more studio LPs, collaborating with numerous artists like Guy Garvey, Bernard Sumner, James Dean Bradfield, and Björk. Adding to that, the group is also renowned for hits including 'In Yer Face', and 'The Only Rhyme That Bites'.

Ed Sheeran scores his fourth No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart as his latest studio album '=' bows atop the with 118,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. Album sales of '=' comprise 68,000, making it the top-selling album of the week, SEA units comprise 46,500 - equaling 61.69 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs, and TEA units comprise 3,500, Billboard reports.

Rolling Stone looks for the warning signs that showed what might happen, and what in the end did happen at the Nov. 5 Astroworld Festival in Houston’s NRG Park where eight people died. Travis Scott has a history of enticing fans to dangerous behavior - in 2017 he encouraged a fan to jump from a second-floor balcony at Terminal 5, in the summer of 2015 Chicago police arrested him after he urged fans to climb over barricades to go onstage at Lollapalooza. There were warning signs at the venue as well - at 2 p.m. on Nov. 5 fans stampeded by the dozens through a V.I.P. security entrance at Astroworld, knocking over metal detectors, which suggests they weren’t prepared for the kind of crowd they were going to get. NRG Park itself had just experienced what could have been a cue to beef up security: Outside the very same venue on the night of Oct. 24, less than two weeks before Astroworld, young fans of Playboi Carti also reportedly knocked over metal detectors and moved metal barriers outside the venue before the concert — which organizers canceled due to the chaos. Travis Scott and other organizers of the Astroworld music festival in Houston are already facing at least one lawsuit over Friday’s deadly crowd surge, filed by an injured concertgoer who called the incident a “predictable and preventable tragedy”, Billboard reports.

Terence “Astro” Wilson, longtime member and “toaster” in the British reggae band UB40, has died at the age of 64, Brookly Vegan reports. Wilson joined UB40 shortly after the band’s formation in late-1978; with the group, Astro served as their “toaster”, delivering spoken word or rap-style vocals over the band’s brand of reggae music. UB40 had the biggest hits with 'Red Red Wine', '(I Can't Help) Falling in Love With You', and 'Kingston Town'.

Latin American countries are the top consumers of music worldwide, by a wide margin, according to data culled from the IFPI's recently released "Engaging With Music" report, Billboard reports. In Mexico, people consume most music per capita - 25.7 hours per week, compared to an average of 18.4 hours per week across the globe. At No. 2 is Brazil, where fans listen to 25.4 hours of music per week. Finally, Argentina -- the third Latin American country included in the study -- is at No. 6, consuming 22.6 hours of music per week. It's not a new thing - these stats have remained relatively stable since IFPI began doing this particular research several years ago. The report surveyed music consumption habits of 43,000 people in 21 countries.

At least eight people were killed and hundreds more injured Friday night following a crowd surge during Travis Scott’s set at the rapper’s Astroworld festival in Houston, CNN reports. More than 300 people were treated for injuries following the incident, with 23 people taken to area hospitals, 11 in critical condition, including a 10-year-old boy. The incident occurred around 9 p.m. during Scott’s set, with the crowd compressing toward the stage, causing “total chaos,” KHOU reported. Scott’s set at the sold-out festival was streamed live on Apple Music. Scott briefly paused his performance as ambulances streamed into the venue, with the concert being ultimately stopped by organizers and authorities. The Saturday lineup of the two-day festival was also canceled.