Hip hop photographer, legendary NYC cable access host and Beastie Boys associate Ricky Powell has died aged 59, Complex reports. His relationship with Beastie Boys opened up the door to work with LL Cool J, Public Enemy and Eric B & Rakim. He also worked beyond the hip-hop scene, photographing Andy Warhol, Madonna, Sofia Coppola, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Vin Diesel and more. He hosted a TV show, 'Rappin With the Rickster', for six years during the 1990s, interviewing stars including Laurence Fishburne and Sonic Youth. Numerous books of his work were published, and a documentary, 'Ricky Powell: the Individualist', was released in 2020.

A group of architects and creatives have presented a Vertical Theatre, a "future-proof" live performance venue designed for socially distancing and is touted as being "tourable" for the pandemic, Broadway World reports. The structure will go up several floors, will have a roof, with optional open sides to allow for optimum airflow and natural ventilation. The audience would be able to sit in balconies that can accommodate groups between 4-12 people or designated social bubbles, and it can hold between 1,200-2,400 fans.

Atlanta rapper Silento, real name Ricky Hawk, was arrested on 1 February and was charged with the murder of his cousin Frederick Rooks, who was found shot dead on 21 January, Variety reports. The 23-year-old had a hit with his single 'Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)' in 2015, accumulating 1,7 billion views on YouTube.

US actress Evan Rachel Wood has claimed singer Marilyn Manson "horrifically abused" her during their three-year relationship in the late noughties, Vanity Fair reports. Manson has denied the allegations, saying they were "horrible distortions of reality". Other women came out with similar allegations against Manson, real name Brian Warner - his personal assistant Ashley Walters, artist SourGirrrl, Sarah McNeilly, and Ashley Lindsay. Loma Vista Recordings - which released Manson's most recent albums - said that it would no longer be working with the artist and would cease promoting his latest album "effective immediately". Manson has also been removed from two US TV shows - 'American Gods' and 'Creepshow'.

500 performers and 300 backstage workers such as make-up artists and hair-stylists are suing Kanye West for up to $30 million in damages after allegations that he failed to pay up for his Sunday Service shows, The Sun reports. The two class-action lawsuits allege that West broke employment laws at his Hollywood Bowl opera 'Nebuchadnezzar' in November 2019. The allegations are said to include failing to pay hundreds of employees on time, or not at all, as well as not delivering the overtime wages, meal and rest breaks and business expenses to which employees were legally entitled.

Paying more for the streaming of music could have a“potentially devastating” effect on the income of artists and songwriters - YouTube has warned the UK music industry following their efforts to force the video streaming giant to raise the amount it pays, Guardian reports. The Charlatans‘ Tim Burgess has written a piece in the Guardian as well speaking out against purported inequalities in streaming payments: "I’m not averse to the idea of a musical reset: using the pandemic as an opportunity to look again at how things are working in the industry. To take this moment and this strange landscape we find ourselves in, and just switch things off and back on again".

'The Sparks Brothers' documentary about avant-garde pop duo Sparks made its world premiere at the virtual edition of Sundance, and the trailer is out now. The film features rare and archival footage of Sparks' 50 years of weird, wonderful pop, extensive interviews with the duo of brothers Ron and Russell Mael, as well as interviews with collaborators and fans, including Flea, Todd Rundgren, Mike Myers, Neil Gaiman, Tony Visconti, Jane Wiedlin, Amy Sherman Palladino, Giorgio Moroder, Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones, Weird Al Yankovic, Duran Duran, Jason Schwartzman, and more...

The colorful ensembles BTS wore in their "Dynamite" music video sold for a total of $162,500 at Julien's Auctions, bringing in more than eight times the amount they were estimated to bring in. Japanese art collector Yusaku Maezawa and YouTuber HIKAKIN bought it, Broadway World reports. A painting of Snoop Dogg’s self-portrait dog wearing a 'Doggy Style 25' gold chain signed by Snoop was the next top seller at $96,000, sixty-four times its original estimate of $1,500. All proceeds from the items sold at auction - numerous others were also offered - will go to MusiCares, providing aid to artists and music community professionals in times of need.

Republic Records had taken the top four spots on Billboard 200 this week, the first time in 24 years, Billboard reports. Morgan Wallen’s 'Dangerous: The Double Album' (released via Big Loud/Republic) is No. 1 for a third week, Pop Smoke’s 'Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon' (Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic) is steady at No. 2, Taylor Swift’s 'Evermore' (Republic) rises 4-3 and The Weeknd’s 'After Hours' (XO/Republic) climbs 8-4. The last time a label held the top four spots was in December 1996 when Bush, Snoop Dogg, No Doubt and 2Pac ruled the world.

Mikau release an interesting metal/hyper-pop song, or as they describe it - mallcore 'At The Edge of Fading Consciousness'; Irish singer/rapper Denise Chaila flaunts an impressive flow in 'Anseo'; hardcore band Stick To Your Guns share an acoustic version of their song 'Amber'; Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle are on the verge of bursting in 'Anhedonia'.

Electronic and experimental pop great Sophie, one of the most important figures in the last decade of underground pop and dance music, has died aged 34 after a "terrible accident" in Athens, Greece, where the artist had been living. The statement read - "true to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell", the New York Times reports.

The English National Opera has successfully tested its singing, breathing and wellbeing program for recovering coronavirus patients, and it has now rolled it out around the country. The program -- described as the first of its kind - uses singing techniques by singing experts to help patients who are experiencing breathlessness and anxiety.

Hilton Valentine, a guitarist in one of the most famous pop-rock bands of the 1960s - the Animals, has died at the age of 77, Rolling Stone reports. The most famous Animals song by far is 'The House of The Rising Sun', but the band scored other hits such as 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' and 'We Gotta Get Out of This Place'.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival's planned return for April 2021 has been canceled due to the pandemic, LA Times reports the news "to the surprise of absolutely no one". Stagecoach, the popular country music festival that follows Coachella's back-to-back weekends, has also canceled its April 23-25 dates.

Yma Sumac boasted a five-octave range and great charisma, which she used to shred borders, genres, and expectations, and now the late Peruvian singer's album 'Legend of the Sun Virgin' is the first reissue by the Madrid-based label Ellas Rugen Records. The label is aiming to highlight female singers from Latin America, Guardian reports.

Primary Wave publishing and talent management company has bought the iconic Sun Records label, including its 6,000 song masters with such classic recordings as Carl Perkins 'Blue Suede Shoes', Jerry Lee Lewis’ 'Great Balls of Fire', Johnny Cash’s 'I Walk The Line', Roy Orbison’s 'Ooby Dooby' and Billy Lee Riley’s 'Red Hot' among them. Primary Wave paid about $30 million, according to The New York Times.

The film 'Fisherman's Friends', about the UK sea shanty group, is being turned into a musical, and it will open at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro in the autumn, BBC reports. The sea shanty band, together since 1995, went from singing in their local pub to playing the main stage at Glastonbury and having a top 10 UK album.

Australian drivers in Queensland who use Spotify in the car will be part of the government's trial safety program, which plays motorists messages urging them to slow down when nearing the state’s school zones, Brisbane Times reports. The feature uses Spotify’s geo-targeting ability to track when drivers come within five kilometres of a school zone and plays them one of 10 specially adapted songs that contain a “slow down” message.

The Coda Collection is a new multi-media company featuring rare concerts and music documentaries, exclusive premieres for films and more, Deadline reports. The founders include Yoko Ono and Jimi Hendrix' sister Jaine so it will feature Rock'n'roll leaning shows, including streaming premieres such as 'Music, Money, Madness…Jimi Hendrix In Maui', 'The Rolling Stones On The Air', 'Johnny Cash at San Quentin', exclusive performances by Jane’s Addiction and Stone Temple Pilots, as well as new and rarely seen performances by Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Avett Brothers, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tyler Childers, Billy Strings, Paul Simon, AC/DC, and more. The channel is launching on Amazon Prime in February for $4.99 per month and globally throughout the rest of 2021.

Swizz Beats and Timbaland were the masters of the battle last year with their Verzuz shows, but it had all started in the Caribbean, half a century ago, NPR argues. The story goes back to Jamaica in the late 1950s, when the streets of Kingston hosted rabid competitions between DJ crews or "sound systems", blasting imported jazz and blues on colossal speakers stacked high. DJs staged lyrical battles onstage and in the studio, with some clashes so intense that the authorities have had to be called into suppressing them. Verzuz was born on that tradition, and last autumn a Caribbean battle show Showdown debuted with artists Alison Hinds from Barbados and Patrice Roberts from Trinidad. Showdown is born from Verzuz, which is in turn born from Jamaican dancehall, which is born from American jazz and blues, NPR concludes.

Country music legend Kris Kristofferson had quietly retired from music last year, the Tennessean reports. He was a struggling musician for years before he stole a helicopter in 1965, landed it on Johnny Cash's lawn to deliver a recording of 'Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down' when his career got a lift-up. The iconic singer-songwriter's 55-year career later included writing and recording numerous songs including 'Me and Bobby McGee', as well as writing songs for the likes of Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Sammi Smith, Ray Price, and Janis Joplin. He was also a movie actor. He gave his final performance last January on the 2020 Outlaw Country Cruise, and closed his set with 'Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends' - to a standing ovation.

A Silver Mt. Zion's song '13 Angels Standing Guard 'round the Side of Your Bed' had a strange journey on TikTok where it was believed to be a real recording of angels singing. For a few weeks late last year, the song sountracked tens of thousands of TikTok videos as users shared creepy stories and offered up historical images of what artists believe angels look like, Exclaim reports. Many users claimed that it was a recording of a cat that had been slowed down to trick others into believing it was real angels, while it was just Efrim Manuel Menuck's indie-rock band. See a compilation of "angel-sounds" below.

The great late MF Doom has been honored with a big new mural at Toronto street art supply store Toronto Collective in the city's Chinatown district. The mural was made by graffiti artist Moises Frank, who previously said "me and my toy friends would draw so much graffiti in our black books back then, we would listen to Doom and tried rapping over the special herbs albums all summer".

Spotify has patented technology that will allow it to analyse user's voice and suggest songs based on "emotional state, gender, age, or accent" of the listener, Music Business Worldwide reports. The patent suggests that speech recognition could be used to gather information about age and gender, while contextual cues such as "intonation, stress, rhythm" would provide clues as to whether a user was "happy, angry, sad or neutral". In September, Spotify patented a karaoke-like feature that allows people to "overlay a music track with their own vocals". Earlier this week, Spotify also gained permission for a "cadence-based media content selection engine" - which matches the tempo of the music to the listener's running speed.

The popular Netflix show 'Bridgerton' has resulted in a 350% increase in streams of the Vitamin String Quartet since the show was released in December. The Los Angeles based group makes classical covers of modern pop hits, including Ariana Grande’s 'Thank U, Next', Maroon 5’s 'Girls Like You', Shawn Mendes’ 'In My Blood' and Billie Eilish’s 'Bad Guy'. "We were taking what’s classic and making it fresh and similarly taking what’s fresh and making it classic" - their manager Leo Flynn told the Guardian.

An amazing story in the Rolling Stone about label executives buying beats behind hits, sometimes without singers’ approval or even knowledge. Some say the murky ethics can turn a breakthrough into “a nightmare”. A prime example of this practice was Caleb Hearn's song 'Always Be' that he wrote for a dead friend, only to find out that the label, management, and publishing company ‘94 Sounds had bought his song without his knowledge.

Major American live-entertainment organizations sent a letter to American president Joe Biden formally offering their venues, staff, and expertise to the COVID-19 vaccination effort, Variety reports. “Our experiences organizing events and managing crowds now put us in the unique position of being the best prepared and most qualified industry to support the vaccination effort" - said Dayna Frank, Board President of NIVA.

Kodak Black has donated $150,000 to charity in the five days since he has been released from jail, Music Week reports. The rapper was granted a pardon by Donald Trump on his last day as U.S. President last week, while he has been serving a 46-month sentence for weapons offences which was due to end in August 2022. Kodak Black has previously tweeted he would donate $1 million to charity if Trump issued him a pardon, but the tweet was later deleted.

Guardian started a pew podcast Reverberate about the power of music, about the times when a song really did make a difference and when music sparked a moment. They started the podcast with a story about a song at the center of Hong Kong’s nascent pro-democracy movement. Listen to the podcast - here.

A large mural depicting the iconic guitarist was unveiled at the Hollywood Guitar Center flagship store, in commemoration of what would’ve been the late guitarist’s 66th birthday (January 26th). The artwork, created by local muralist Robert Vargas, stands at 17 feet tall by 105 feet wide, depicts Eddie van Halen playing his famous “Frankenstrat” guitar, Brooklyn Vegan reports.