Moroccans Innov Gnawa announce their debut album with an easy listening global epic 'Chorfa'; Finneas and Ashe have reunited for a new duet, 'Till Forever Falls Apart', cheezy yet romantic earworm; post-metal Canadians BIG | BRAVE build tension on 'Half Breed' without ever releasing it.
New York will allow performances venues to reopen starting April 2, with capacity capped at 33%, with social distancing and face coverings required by all attendees. AEG CEO Jay Marciano has said previously to Rolling Stone that this can't work: “We built an industry based upon selling out. It’s important for the experience. The first 50 percent of the tickets pay for expenses like the stagehands and the marketing, the ushers, and the rest and the venue, and the other 50 percent is shared between the artists and the promoter - so, if all you’re going to sell is 50 percent of tickets, nobody’s making any money. Selling 85 percent of tickets is roughly the break-even”. So, what's left is multiplying the ticket price by 3, right?!?
Jack Dorsey's digital-payments processor Square is buying a majority stake in Tidal, Jay-Z's music streaming platform, for $297 million, through a mix of cash and stock, The New York Times reports. The move is set to bring Jay-Z to Square's board of directors. Jay-Z bought Tidal in 2015 for $56 million.
Morgan Carey is suing his younger sister Mariah Carey star for defamation and emotional distress caused by her recent memoir 'The Meaning Of Mariah Carey', USA Today reports. Singer's older brother says the book falsely suggests he was violent, saying that as a result, he has suffered "extreme mental anguish" and "serious damage to his reputation". Last month Mariah Carey's sister Alison Carey sued her for $1.25m over the memoir - there are passages claiming that Alison Carey gave Valium to 12-year-old Mariah, tried to pimp her out and threw boiling tea on her were "outrageous" and meant to "humiliate and embarrass" her.
Kings of Leon will release their new album 'When You See Yourself' on Friday, in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) - becoming the first band to ever do so, Variety reports. Their NFT will be released through YellowHeart, a streaming platform based on blockchain. Along with the album, Kings of Leon are auctioning off six “golden tickets” that will include perks like four front row tickets to any Kings of Leon show for life, and another package includes six individual art pieces celebrating the album’s release and Kings of Leon’s legacy. Recently, artists like Grimes and Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda sold their digital art as NFTs, to the tune of $5.8 million and $30,000, respectively. Music producer 3LAU has sold a collection of 33 different non-fungible tokens for a total of $11.7m.
David Crosby has sold all of his music - his solo work, his work with the Byrds, Crosby & Nash, CSN, and CSNY - to famed music executive Irving Azoff’s new venture Iconic Artists Group, Pollstar reports. It includes the recorded music and publishing rights to his entire music catalog. “Given our current inability to work live, this deal is a blessing for me and my family and I do believe these are the best people to do it with” - Crosby said.
Alfa Mist announces his new album with jazzy-hip-hop single 'Organic Rust'; "rocky pop" band Wolf Alice share their grand new ballad 'The Last Man On Earth'; Damon Locks - Black Monument Ensemble share a jazzy afrobeat song 'NOW (Forever Momentary Space)'; Mattie shares an electro r'n'b song 'Human Thing'; Bomba Estéreo goes tribal pop on 'Aqua'.
Three classically trained musicians tell the Guardian about the delivery jobs they turned to during the pandemic. Classically trained trombonist Rachel Allen had to take shifts with the delivery firm Yodel to make ends meet. Violinist Catherine Martin, who delivers groceries, says that "without concerts in my diary, I totally lost my motivation. I got quite depressed and I really realised I needed to do something”. French horn player Jake Bagby found pleasure in talking to people he delivers groceries to because everybody is alone (and lonely).
Electronic duo The Avalanches have won the 2020 Australian Music Prize for their album ‘We Will Always Love You’, uDiscover Music reports. The Avalanches were nominated next to Tame Impala’s ‘The Slow Rush’, Ziggy Ramo’s ‘Black Thoughts’, ‘Nyaaringu’ by Miiesha, Alice Ivy’s ‘Don’t Sleep’, Blake Scott’s ‘Niscitam’, Emma Donovan and the Putbacks’ ‘Crossover’, Fanny Lumsden’s ‘Fallow’ and Gordon Koang’s ‘Unity’. Previous winners of the Australian Music Prize include Sampa The Great, Gurrumul, A.B. Original, Courtney Barnett, and The Drones.
'The United States vs. Billie Holiday' comes down to what one single song does to the life of the singer, to the society, and the system. LA Times recalls what really happened when federal officers prosecuted Billie Holiday because of the song about a lynching in the American South - the powerful 'Strange Fruit', with the excuse of fighting against the drugs. Critics don't really like the movie.
More than 100 Italian artists staged a silent protest L'Ultimo Concerto last Saturday to raise awareness for the struggling live music industry. Italian musicians came to the venues and prepared everything just like for a normal show - with their instruments and sound-checks and all - and then just stood still in silence.
Reggae pioneer Neville "Bunny Wailer" Livingston, has died at the age of 73 at a hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, the Jamaica Observer reports. Wailer, whose real name was Neville Livingston, was a founding member of the Wailers, which also included Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Wailer eventually left The Wailers in 1973 to find success as a solo artist, also winning three Grammys.
Music producer 3LAU has sold a collection of 33 different non-fungible tokens for a total of $11.7m, Business Insider reports. The collection includes special edition physical vinyl, unreleased music and unique experiences such as a custom song with the winner’s creative direction, which was won by the top bidder for $3,666,666. NFTs are digital representations of art (visual, audio, etc.) where ownership is tracked and verified on the blockchain. Sales in music-related NFTs this weekend alone – which included Grimes selling her WarNymph digital art collection for $5.8m – amounted to $18.6m, which is 80% of all music NFT sales combined over the nine months.
SoundCloud is introducing what it calls “fan-powered royalties” – its own branding of the user-centric royalties model – which it says will mean each SoundCloud listener’s subscription or advertising revenue is distributed among the artists that they listen to, rather than their plays being pooled, MBW reports. “Fan-powered” royalties will launch on SoundCloud on April 1, the platform suggests the move will “benefit rising independent artists with loyal fans”, and cites two independent artists currently operating on SoundCloud – Chevy and Vincent. Chevy currently has 12,700 followers on SoundCloud, Vincent has 124,000. By switching these artists to a “fan powered” model and away from ‘pro rata’, based on their recent playcounts on SoundCloud, the service estimates that Chevy’s monthly royalties will grow 217%, while Vincent’s will multiply by five, up from $120 to $600. Fingers crossed!
Michael Gudinski, the globally respected Australian music entrepreneur and founder of Mushroom Group, has died aged 68, according to Hollywood Reporter. He worked with artists including Kylie Minogue, MacKenzie Theory, the Skyhooks, the Choirboys and many more. Today, Mushroom Group comprises a collective of independent record labels, such as Liberator Music, Liberation Records, and Bloodlines.
Los Angeles-based singer Lady Blackbird is releasing her debut album 'Black Acid Soul', a pop piano-jazz-sounding one. The New Cue says Lady Blackbird's "arresting voice breathes new life into old jazz moves. It’s powerful stuff".
Italian metal band Lacuna Coil joined a wide array of Italian acts in showing support to local venus - by standing silent, Loudwire reports. The group announced "L'Ultimo Concerto" at the Alcatraz-Milano stage, and while some fans may have expected a performance, Lacuna Coil have just stood still. It was a form of protest as part of an initiative pointing out the importance of these essential clubs for developing artists and contributing to the country's art and economy.
The prospect capacity re-opening in the largest U.S. markets with over 75% capacity was “within sight”, Live Cation's CEO Michael Rapino told Music Business Worldwide. He said that “a clear outline to a 75% to 100% capacity for outdoor U.S. events in 2021 was looking likely to be green-lit”. Good news from the UK as well - festival organisers are enjoying record ticket sales after the government’s announcement of its roadmap out of lockdown in England, Guardian reports.
A total of 11 women have come forward to accuse Atlanta scene staples T.I. and his wife, former Xscape member Tiny, of drugging and sexually assaulting them, according to the New York Times. None of the couple’s accusers know each other, but many describe sexual abuse, forced ingestion of illegal narcotics, kidnapping, terroristic threats and false imprisonment.
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste won best score - motion picture at 2021 Golden Globe Awards for their collaborative work on Pixar's 'Soul'. In other music-related Golden Globes news, 'Io Sì (Seen)' from 'The Life Ahead', written by Daine Warren and performed by Laura Pausini, won Best Song, Chadwick Boseman won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', and Andra Day won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture for 'The United States Vs. Billie Holiday'. The full list of winners and nominees - here.
Morgan Wallen makes Billboard history with his latest release 'Dangerous: The Double Album' as the only country album to spend its first seven weeks at No. 1 in the 64-year history of the Billboard 200. Previously, Garth Brooks held the top of Billboard 200 for six weeks in 1992 with 'The Chase'. 'Dangerous' earned 89,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 25 (down 5%), Billboard reports.
New documentary 'Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché' looks and the life of the late singer of iconic 1970s UK punk band X-Ray Spex, the first woman of colour in the UK to front a successful rock band. "Poly Styrene... introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism... the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements" - the press statement reads.
'Bad Dreams' is the stand-out song from Indigo Sparke's new album 'Echo'; NoName shares funk/jazzy groove-banger 'Rainforest'; Hannah Jadagu shares some happy melancholia with 'Think Too Much'; The Armed go raaawk on 'All Futures'; Francis of Delirium share rock'n'cool song 'Let It All Go'.
Music streaming increased 13.4% in 2020 in the US compared to 2019, generating $10.1 billion last year compared to $8.9 billion in 2019, according to RIAA. Music streaming is accounting for 83% of the total revenue of the industry now. Vinyl sales have increased a whopping 29.2% to $619.6 million, compared to $479.5 million in 2019. Streaming has driven the industry to grow for the fifth consecutive year, with revenues increasing 9.2% in 2020, generating $12.2 billion in total.
Spotify CEO and cofounder Daniel Ek said the company paid out $5 billion in royalties in 2020, Spotify reports. Chief content officer Dawn Ostroff announced that over the last four years, the number of recording artists whose catalogs generated more than $1 million a year across recording and publishing is up over 82% to more than 800 artists (the majority of money is still going to the labels), and the number generating more than $100,000 a year is up 79% to more than 7,500 artists. Spotify this week also announced that it will be introducing a hi-fi option later this year.
Mogwai have landed their first-ever chart-topper in the UK as their latest release 'As the Love Continues' debuts at the No. 1 spot, UK Official Charts reports. It's the Scottish rock group's first No. 1 in 25-year career. Mogwai beat out grime artist Ghetts for the top spot.
ReWrapped is a new AI which analyzes your Spotify favorites in order to discover new artists influenced by your musical taste, Engadget reports. It works by linking directly with your Spotify account and identifying the most popular music via the Spotify Wrapped feature. Once recognised, this innovative A.I. audio analysis engine then examines key elements of each audio track and compares them against the community of artists, with suggestions then made based on the similarities.
Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds bandmate Warren Ellis made a new album in lockdown - their first non-soundtrack album as a duo - called 'Carnage' and it was just surprise-released today. Warren says "making 'Carnage' was an accelerated process of intense creativity. The eight songs were there in one form or another within the first two-and-a-half days and then it was, ‘let’s just make a record!’ There was nothing too premeditated about it". Cave calls it "a brutal but very beautiful record nested in a communal catastrophe". Read the lyrics here.
Tickets for Reading and Leeds festival have been sold out, two days after organizers confirmed the event would go ahead this year, NME reports. One of the UK’s biggest outdoor events has been confirmed for this year after the announcement of the UK government’s roadmap to reopening the country from Covid lockdown. Two city weekender is due to happen in August, and it will share a lineup which includes headliners Stormzy, Liam Gallagher, Post Malone, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Disclosure and Queens of the Stone Age.
Daft Punk’s catalog brought in $6.4 million in revenue annually over the last four years, which would make $1.883 million in artist royalties for the band, according to Billboard estimates. Parisian duo's catalog averaged around 317,000 album consumption units a year; also their last tour of 2007 has made them $20-40 million. Billboard also makes interesting estimates on possible earnings: a two-weekend headliner set at Coachella would have easily netted them $12 million minus costs, while at least 10 other major global festivals would have likely paid $5 million to $6 million per set. Pairing those festival appearances with a select stadium tour could have grossed the duo $3 million a night allowing them to surpass the $100 million mark by playing 35 to 40 shows in a single year.
