Manchester Orchestra turn to dance rock on 'Bed Head', but those unmissable vocals are intact; Ben Howard is at his most relaxed and content on 'Far Out'; Bloodside is the new music/visual art project by AJ Lambert (daughter of Nancy Sinatra, and granddaughter of Frank, obviously), Protomartyr guitarist Greg Ahee and Preoccupations drummer Mike Wallace - 'Pica' is their first anything; Moraines share ambient yet uplifting post-rock 'The Brute', the first single from their upcoming debut album.

Jason Derulo was a teenage-star, but at the end of 2019, his career has stagnated for a while. Them he discovered TikTok and now he is the most followed artist on the platform, he ranks 12th overall. Variety collected his advice: “Everybody has a different audience, and you have to spend some time to get to know yours. Then, the most important thing is good lighting, and use trending songs because they capture people’s interest instantly. Also, start your videos with a close-up — you have literally one second to stop people from scrolling, so what are you going to do with that second? Quick cuts keep people’s attention, and there’s tricks like having two or three sentences on the screen, but just long enough for people to read just the first one, so they have to watch the whole video again to read the rest of it".

Nazi punk and nazi black metal are both present on the biggest streaming services, and Medium observes a similar trend with electronic synthesizer music. Fashwave (a portmanteau of “fascism” and “wave”) or Trumpwave have emerged in recent years with lounge music sounds superimposed by fascist imagery like swastika and Hitler on top of it. Both Fashwave and Trumpwave come up frequently on YouTube, Soundcloud, and Spotify for those willing to look. Interspliced in between electronic beats on YouTube are speeches to segregationist or fascists leaders, as well as straight-up fascist speeches (no hyperlinks to those here).

In the span of mere weeks, Jay-Z’s net worth has jumped 40 percent up to $1,4 billion, SCMP calculates. In addition to selling 50 percent of his champagne brand Armand de Brignac, also known as Ace of Spades, to LVMH, Jay-Z sold a majority stake of his streaming service Tidal to Square. 51-year-old rapper and businessman ishappy about his partners - “I’m very fortunate. Jack Dorsey, who created Twitter, Square and Cash App, and Philippe [Schaus] and the guys who created LVMH – you couldn’t ask for better partners; they’re the top of the top. [Things] usually align like that when people do really great things. You could get into partnerships and people short-change the business for different reasons. These guys don’t cut corners, they try to get it right. It’s about respect".

There's plenty of tension in that calmness at the beginning of live session version of 'The Code' by London-based Ethiopian-singer model Egyptian Alewya and British jazz drummer Moses Boyd. After the build-up, it turns into powerful rock/jazz/global territory. Previously, the two have recorded a live version of her song 'Sweating'.

Spotify has launched a new website – Loud & Clear – with plenty of information about money generated on the streaming platform. In 2020, some 13,400 acts generated total payments in excess of $50,000 around the world, double the number of artists who generated over $50k in payments from Spotify in 2017 (7,300). Also, L&C shows that 7,800 artists generated $100k-plus in 2020, the $500k-plus-per-year club counted 1,820 artists in 2020, and the $1 million-plus-per-year club counted 870 artists in 2020. Generated is important here - it's the amount made by the artist's music, and that amount is being split by the artist and the publisher, with the big chunk (85% or so) going to the publisher. As of 2020, Spotify has paid over $23 billion in royalties to rights holders — including over $5 billion in 2020 alone, up from $3.3 billion in 2017.

Isol-Aid started in March as a one-off festival, but the success of the first one gave organizers strength to continue. It has since grown into a weekly event, with an average of four artists performing, Guardian reports. It has since hosted 881 artists, resulted in record deals, evolved to a paid gig (to compensate the artists), with around 35,000 viewers on average tuning in each week. Bigger artists like Julia Jacklin, Stella Donnelly, and Middle Kids appear alongside lesser-known, like health-care workers doing music as a hobby. It's streamed on TikTok, where performers stream on their own account and then direct audiences to the next act, as well as on Isol-Aid.com. On Sunday, March 21, line-up consists of Jaguar Jonze, Hockey Dad, Julia Stone, and Isaiah Firebrace.

Kanye West's sneaker and apparel business Yeezy, a venture with Adidas AG and Gap Inc., has been valued at $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion by UBS Group AG, according to Bloomberg. An unaudited balance sheet of West finances includes also $122 million in cash and stock and more than $1.7 billion in other assets, including a significant investment in Skims, Kim Kardashian’s underwear label. West’s entire music catalog is worth $110.5 million. In 2015, West said he was $16 million in debt. A year later he said he owed $53 million. By 2018, however, he was earning more than $100 million in royalties through its Adidas relationship. Forbes made its calculations of West's wealth, and those are significantly lower. The Yeezy company that West is the sole owner of is currently worth $1.5 billion by Forbes' estimates, not $3.2 to $4.7 billion like the Bloomberg report implies. The Bloomberg report also mentioned an additional $1.7 billion in personal assets - Forbes thinks that number is closer to $160 million. Forbes estimates his total net worth to about $1.8 billion. 

Carlos Niño is joined by Jamael Dean and Shabaka Hutchings on the meditative minimal jazz 'Please, Wake Up'; Mick Jenkins shares 'Designer Frames' produced by Kaytranada in his signature dance-rap style; Writhing Squares' 'Chart for the Solution' is an 11-minute one-chord jam; DeVotchKa shares nice orchestral movie-music 'Lose You in the Crowd' from 'The True Adventures of Wolfboy'; Helado Negro covers Deerhunter’s 'Futurism' for a new compilation featuring artists from the 4AD's roster covering songs from throughout the label’s 40-year archive.

This year's editions of UK festivals Glastonbury and Download are cancelled, since they were to happen early in the summer. Others, who were scheduled for late summer, or have been rescheduled, are planning to go ahead, "confident that fans will be allowed to mosh, pogo and stage-dive with the risk of injury, rather than disease, their main concern", as BBC puts it. Dozens of fests should go ahead, among them All Points East (headlined by Jamie xx, Kano, Slowthai, Arlo Parks, Bicep), Hyde Park (Pearl Jam, Duran Duran, Pixies), Camp (Fatboy Slim, Kelis), Creamfields (Deadmau5, Carl Cox, Eric Prydz, Tiesto, Bicep), Isle Of Wight, Latitude (Lewis Capaldi, Bastille, Snow Patrol), Reading & Leeds (Stormzy, Post Malone, Liam Gallagher, Queens Of The Stone Age), Y Not, Womad...

Massive Attack‘s Robert Del Naja said he was “pretty livid” over the live music industry not meeting pledges to reduce its carbon footprint, Sky News reports. 3D highlighted Coldplay’s decision to stop touring until they could make it “environmentally friendly as possible”, adding, however, that “one band not touring doesn’t change a thing”. Del Naja also highlighted the possible “different solutions” for transportation like trains and buses. “Now is the time for action, no more pledges” - he told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into the future of UK music festivals.

The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers organized protests outside Spotify’s offices in 31 cities in the US and Canada, South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia on Monday, Clash Magazine reports. The peaceful demonstrations were meant to draw attention to the “Justice at Spotify” list of demands, which includes paying artists one cent per stream (Spotify currently pays some artists as little as $0.0038 per stream, which is among the lowest rates of any platform), plus transparent contracts, a more user-centric payment model, an end to payola, a switch to crediting all labor in recordings, and an end to legal battles against artists which serve to “further impoverish artists”.

“We’re approaching things by saying, ‘Let’s not even pretend that we’re trying to replace the live club experience’” - James Minor, who oversees SXSW Music, says to Texas Monthly about this year's edition of the famous festival. Instead of bringing 45-minute sets as part of an six-hour event at a club, each showcase will be a single hour of entertainment, because “people’s attention spans are a lot shorter online”, Minor says. There are no big-name headliners this year, he says, instead, this year’s festival will be focused on launching the careers of artists who’ve struggled with getting attention during the pandemic. “It’s supposed to be the coming-out party for what happens next in music" - Minor explains. Some of the bands who are going to perform are English new rock stars Black Country, New Road, country artists Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers who will perform together, Danish heavy metal heavyweights Iceage, Montreal shoegazers No Joy... SXSW 2021 is due March 16-21.

Oxford University Press has made several articles about music and technology available for free until the end of May. Articles explore "the impact of technology on the field of Music, including discussions on studies of musical instruments through CAD and 3D printing, and how the recording studio can be perceived as an instrument in its own right".

Thione Ballago Seck, from a family of “griot” singers, one of the West African country’s most famous musicians, alongside Youssou Ndour, Omar Pene, Ismael Lo and his own son, Wally Seck, has died at the age of 66 in Dakar on Sunday, al Jazeera reports. In the 1970s he sang in the Orchestre Baobab, known for playing a mix of Afro-Cuban salsa and traditional Senegalese music. In 1980 the singer and lyricist founded Raam Daam, which became one of the most popular purveyors of mblalax, a genre combining funk, reggae, dance music and local rhythms.

The music movie 'Sound of Metal' about a drummer who goes deaf is nominated for an Oscar in the best picture category, the Academy has revealed. The lead actor from that movie, British musician and actor Riz Ahmed, is nominated for his leading role in that movie. Chadwick Boseman, who died last year, is up against him in the same category for his performance in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'. Also, Viola Davis is nominated in the Actress in a Leading Role category for her performance in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', as well as Andra Day for 'The United States vs. Billie Holiday'. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are nominated twice in the Original Score category, with 'Mank' and 'Soul' - Jon Batiste joins them in the latter. Also, in the same category, nominated are Terence Blanchard with 'Da 5 Bloods', Emile Mosseri with 'Minari', and 'News of the World' by James Newton Howard. In the Original song category nominated are: 'Fight For You' from 'Judas and the Black Messiah', 'Hear My Voice' from 'The Trial of the Chicago 7', 'Husavik' from 'Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga', 'lo Sì (Seen)' from 'The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)', and 'Speak Now'" from 'One Night in Miami…'.

Taylor Swift has become the first woman in Grammy Awards history to win album of the year three times - the 31-year-old songstress took home the top prize last night with 'Folklore'. Swift previously won album of the year in 2010 for 'Fearless', at that time, the youngest artist ever to do so, and in 2016 for '1989'. The only other musicians to win thrice are Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, and Paul Simon, USA Today reports. Beyoncé became the most-decorated woman in Grammys history with her 28th win, while her daughter Blue Ivy Carter, at 9 years old, became the second youngest person to win a Grammy, according to CBS News. Billie Eilish accepted the Grammy for Record of the Year for her song 'Everything I Wanted', Megan Thee Stallion won Best New Artist, H.E.R. took Song of the Year for 'I Can't Breathe', Check out all the nominees and winners here. BBC picks out five special moments from the ceremony, including Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion simulating sex onstage (a Scissor Sisters moment, right!?).

Adrian Crowley shares a bit of psychedelia indie with 'Northbound Stowaway'; Human Impact offer dirty industrial rock on 'Recognition'; DJ Muggs and Rome Streetz go old-school hip-hop on 'Ace of Swords'; Kele of Bloc Party shares a hypnotic guitar loop on 'The Heart of the Wave'; afrobeat meets hip-hop on 'Cosmosis' by the late Tony Allen featuring Skepta & Ben Okri; Chronixx cries for peace (and legal ganja) on psychedelic reggae 'Safe N Sound'; former post-hardcore band Trophy Scars deliver an Americana-blues song 'Father: Part I'.

Aphex Twin sold a new unique piece of artwork in the form of an NFT for $128,000 on the cryptocurrency marketplace Foundation, NME reports. The piece, titled afx\/weirdcore\blockscanner, is a collaboration between Aphex and regular collaborator and visual artist Weirdcore, and features music from the DJ and “additional technical input” from multidisciplinary artist Freeka Tet.

Apart from the biggest categories, there were some noticeable wins at the Grammys last night. Kaytranada won Best Dance/Electronic Album with 'Bubba', Fiona Apple won Best Rock Performance with 'Shameika' as well as Best Alternative Music Album with 'Fetch the Bolt Cutters', Brittany Howard won Best Rock Song with 'Stay High', The Strokes won Best Rock Album with 'The New Abnormal', Thundercat won Best Progressive R&B Album with 'It Is What It Is', Gillian Welch & David Rawlings won Best Folk Album with 'All The Good Times', Burna Boy won Best Global Music Album with 'Twice As Tall', Body Count won Best Metal Performance with 'Bum-Rush', even Kanye West won, in Best Contemporary Christian Music Album category with 'Jesus is King', tying Jay-Z as the most ever Grammy-awarded among hip-hop artists with 22 awards.

Morgan Wallen spends a ninth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 'Dangerous: The Double Album', which is most weeks at No. 1 for any album since Drake scored 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2016 with 'Views'. 'Dangerous' is also one of four country albums ever to spend at least nine weeks in the lead. Billboard reports. 'Dangerous' earned 78,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending March 11, down a meager 6% from the previous week.

Satanic Planet is a new industrial metal supergroup featuring Justin Pearson of the Locust and Dead Cross, Dave Lombardo of Dead Cross and ex-Slayer, Luke Henshaw of Planet B, and Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the actual Satanic Temple, The PRP reports. Greaves will be penning lyrics for Satanic Planet, while Pearson will be on vocals. They are also working with a variety of guests on their debut album, including Cattle Decapitation's Travis Ryan, Silent's Jung Sing, Eric Livingston, Nomi Abadi, Shiva Honey, as well as Steve-O of ‘Jackass‘. Satanic Planet members are pointing to the date of May 28.

The 63rd Grammy Awards take place in Los Angeles on Sunday night, with performances from Billie Eilish, BTS, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles and Cardi B - it's available to watch online (at 5 PM LA time, 1 PM Monday Berlin time, 9 AM Monday Tokyo time). This year's ceremony will have to audience, and performers will be separated onto five stages. The awards will be handed out by bartenders, security guards and cleaners from concert venues that have been forced to close because of Covid-19.

The Weeknd has said he will boycott future Grammy Awards after not being shortlisted for a single award this year, the New York Times reports. He said he would remain absent from the event until the Recording Academy, which organizes the awards, got rid of the "secret committees" that decide many of the nominations. The Grammys voting procedures are notoriously opaque, with review committees having the final say in 72 of the 83 categories. The anonymous panels, which can include musicians, record label staff and experts, review the initial choices of the Grammy voters and have the final say over who makes the shortlist.

The UK is one of the countries in the world with the fastest-growing number of people vaccinated against Covid-19, with 10 million extra vaccinations currently available in the UK which will start to be given out this week. It's predicted that all over 50s could receive their second jab by the end of March, with all over 40s receiving a vaccination in April and the 30-39 age group beginning to receive their jabs by the end of that month. The 18-29 bracket will receive doses from May. MixMag says rightfully this is all good news for clubs that can currently reopen from June 21, as well as for the festival season in the UK and abroad.

Six Degrees Records is releasing today 'I’ve Forgotten Now Who I Used to Be', an album of field recordings from Ghana "witch" camps - in reality, refugee camps for women accused of witchcraft. It was produced by Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project).

Routenote brings the numbers in - lists the ten largest music streaming services by number of tracks in their catalogue. The undisputable No. 1 is SoundCloud with 200 million songs, Deezer follows with 72 million songs, while the next five - Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify, Amazon, Qobuz - host around 70 million songs each. Napster follows with 60 million, while YouTube Music and KKBOX round up the Top 10 with 50 million songs each.

"Atmospheric techno, ‘00s R&B, sampled orchestras and cut-up beats all at once" - The New Cue describes Smerz, their new favourite artist of the week. The Norvegian duo takes their name from the German phrase for heartbreak - “herzschmerz”, and have released their debut album 'Believer' on XL Recordings last month. Pitchfork has described it quite accurately: "There’s a creeping insistence to this music, thriving off a dual sense of unease and temptation, and the best songs blur the line between hedonism and anxiety". The band says it's "a record about love and friendship".

American president Joe Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package legislation known as the American Rescue Plan, which adds $1.25 billion to Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, NBC reports. This will allow struggling music venues across the US to receive an added lifeline. It also allows venue owners to apply for Paycheck Protection Loans. Music venues owners will be allowed to apply for both a loan and a grant.

"Twitter shaman Jack Dorsey’s recent acquisition of Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal, by his company, Square points to something that is bubbling up in the business right now that is still early, but ultimately will build into a huge, new movement of massively monetizing direct artist-fan connection and engagement" - Peter Csathy writes in his CoS editorial, adding - "Just think of the virtual/tangible 'combo package' possibilities – where passionate superfans happily pay premium prices to support and get ever-closer to the artists they love in all modes of engagement".