London’s Victoria & Albert Museum has acquired David Bowie’s archive of more than 80,000 items as a gift from the late musician’s estate. The collection includes costumes, instruments, letters, photos, lyrics, and much more, including a Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit, his Alladin Sane tour costumes, handwritten lyrics for 'Heroes,' and notebooks Bowie kept throughout his lifetime. In 2025, the collection will be viewable at The David Bowie Center for the Study of Performing Arts, part of V&A East Storehouse, which is being built in east London’s Olympic Park. The collection was secured by the David Bowie Estate, while a 10 million pound donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group will go toward a display and home at the V&A East location.

Bandcamp has announced that users can now build playlists from a collection of purchased music. Songs can be added from a track or album’s context menu or with one long press on a track. Playlists can also be downloaded for offline listening. Bandcamp promises more playlist features are in the works.

Nipsey Hussle’s killer, Eric R. Holder Jr., has been sentenced to 60 years to life in prison, the Los Angeles Times reports. Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed in March 2019 at age 33. Court documents and testimony indicated that Holder, a Crips gang member, shot Nipsey Hussle at least 10 times in front of the rapper’s Marathon Clothing store, resulting in a severed spinal cord, and kicked him more than once on the ground. Holder was arrested on April 2, 2019, two days after the shooting. Nipsey Hussle, legal name Ermias Asghedom, was seen as a philanthropist and key community figure who had reinvested in the Crenshaw neighborhood he often rapped about. Hussle owned and operated several businesses in the area, including the clothing store where he was killed. Referred to by some as “Neighborhood Nip,” Hussle had poured nearly $2.5 million into the lot where he was killed and often traveled the area without security despite his status as a hip-hop superstar. He was signing autographs the day he was killed.

"Despite the challenges that the electronic music community in general—and women in particular—face, there remains a deep desire to create, build, rebuild and share music from behind the decks to dancefloors worldwide" - Bandcamp points out to the generation of female producers from South West Asia and North Africa redefining the sound of electronic music.

Fortnite has launched a new soundtrack option called Radio Underground, featuring indie music from all over the world, The Verge reports. The in-game radio station, curated by Bandcamp editors, is available now through March 8, when the game’s Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 1 comes to an end. Fortnite’s creator, Epic Games, purchased Bandcamp in March 2022, and this new initiative marks the first integration between Epic’s flagship game and the indie music marketplace and service.

American musician John Vanderslice described to Consequence how he managed to make a “middle-class living" from touring. It was a 12-date tour of the American west coast when he used a hotel scam to get discounts, didn't use any drugs or alcohol, made his own food, and had a lot of merch in his car. All in all, he made $8064 from concerts and $9220 from the merchandise. His costs were $1795, which means he made $15,500 in two weeks. Vanderslice owns a studio and works as a record producer.

Bandcamp Daily presents the experimental electronic music scene from Amman, the capital of Jordan, one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the Levant.  It’s long been a hub for businesses and NGOs, which has had a liberalizing effect on the city, and made for the environment that created producers such as Toumba, Taymour, DJ ODDZ, and Idreesi, selected by Bandcamp. Crack Magazine recently interviewed Toumba who shared his insight of the music: “If I showed my recent stuff to someone in London, they wouldn’t recognise it as folkloric – they’d just recognise some swung drums that sound a bit left field, But someone from Jordan would be like, ‘Ah, I know this.’ That’s what I want to make.”

Terrestrial radio accounted for 17% of listener engagement in 2022, compared to subscription audio streaming, which accounted for 24%, according to IFPI’s 2022 Engaging with Music Report. Plus, 73% of those surveyed stated that when they do listen to the radio, they listen to it mainly for the purpose of listening to music, MBW reports. Tom Rose, Managing Director at pan-European PR and radio plugging agency Propeller Communications, believes radio will maintain its position as the essential platform for new music discovery - "people want to be recommended music by people they trust, as well as algorithms. That’s why public radio stations are able to increase in listenership when they get it right. There are less and less media outlets out there with the demise of blogs and print media, but fans still want to be recommended music by tastemakers that they trust."

“People want positive energy in their lives. Trance music offers just that” - Dutch curator, writer, and label owner Arjan Rietveld says to Pitchfork about the current revival of trance. Rietveld sees trance as a natural corrective to the omnipresent darkness of styles like techno and more experimental styles of club music, not to mention real-world woes like climate change and the pandemic, The P points out. Musicians at the crest of that new trance wave are TDJ, Young Marco, DJ Courtesy, among others.

Award-winning ballet director Marco Goecke from the Hanover State Opera has been suspended after smearing dog faeces on a critic's face, Daily Mail reports. Goecke, apparently furious about a review of one of his shows by journalist Wiebke Hüster, allegedly confronted the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung critic during the half-time break of another show and smeared a paper bag filled with dog excrement on her face. Ms Hüster described Mr Goecke's show, 'In The Dutch Mountains' opened recently at the Nederlands Dans Theatre in The Hague, like being "alternately driven mad and killed by boredom". When the director attacked her, she said she couldn't defend herself, as she was in panic, she told NDR.

Oleh Shpudeiko bought himself a handheld digital tape recorder in 2012 and started to record sounds around his city - rail stations, the sound of traffic and birdsong, the dripping of water in a tunnel, the rumbling of trains on a track, the babble of voices in a shopping mall – all sliced up, manipulated, accompanied by synthesisers and transformed into a piece of compelling ambient music. The city in question is his hometown of Kyiv. The album, 'Kyiv Eternal', was completed after the Russian invasion and is coming out next week under the name Heinali. Guardian presents the album and the composer.

Producer and musician Pharrell Williams will take on the role of creative director for the luxury fashion brand’s menswear line, GQ reports. His first collection for LV will be released during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris in June. Pharrell follows in the footsteps of Virgil Abloh, who served as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection from 2018 until his death in 2021 due to cardiac angiosarcoma. Abloh was the first Black American to be appointed to the role.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have launched a special website dedicated to marking the 10th anniversary of their album 'Push The Sky Away', featuring video, audio, imagery, lyrics and exclusive merchandise related to the record. A February 2013 performance of 'Push The Sky Away' in full, followed by a set of other classic songs, captured at Los Angeles' Fonda Theatre, has also debuted online and will be available for a limited amount of time. In a new statement about the album, Cave said: "'Push The Sky Away' was the start of a new, wild adventure for The Bad Seeds. The record opened up a whole different approach to the way we created our music. It was the beginning of a way of writing – a kind of controlled improvisation. Because of this shift, the record was to some extent divisive – but it was the necessary reinvention that the Bad Seeds desperately needed".

s me with a kind of professional pride to be a part of the sometimes contentious business of songwriting. It’s cool. I like it" - Nick Cave answered on his Red Hand Files blog to fans' questions about Tom Jones' 'Delilah ' being banned in Wales. Cave doesn't really like that particular murder ballad - "'Delilah’, despite the fact that it was awarded the Ivor Novello in 1968, just sort of sucks. As someone who knows a thing or two about murder ballads, for my taste, it’s all too waltzy and strident and hammy and mariachi and triumphant. And the words are ugly – 'I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more.' Really?".

U2 are launching their long-rumored Las Vegas residency 'U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At The Sphere' at the high-tech MSG Sphere this fall, Rolling Stone reports. The shows will celebrate their 1991 album 'Achtung Baby' in a multi-show residency, but without drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who will be recuperating from surgery. Bram van den Berg will replace him. U2 said that their "audience was always the fifth member of the band. Bottom line, U2 hasn’t played live since December 2019 and we need to get back on stage and see the faces of our fans again".

Playboi Carti allegedly choked his pregnant girlfriend, leaving visible injuries on her neck, chest, and back, during an argument on December 20, TMZ reports. Carti’s girlfriend, who was 14 weeks pregnant at the time, told police that she and Carti were arguing about a paternity test when he grabbed her throat, pushed her into some bushes, and held her neck until she could barely breathe. She went to her car and tried to call police, but Carti attacked her again.

David Jolicoeur, a founding member of De La Soul, has died at the age of 54, with the cause of death still unknown, All Hip Hop reports. The musician has commonly performed under the stage name Trugoy the Dove, and later in his career as Dave. On De La Soul's debut - '3 Feet High and Rising', the band's most commercially successful record, and widely considered a masterpiece - they differentiated themselves from their contemporaries with their eccentric wordplay and eclectic jazz and funk samples.

Burt Bacharach, the songwriter and performer who scored dozens of hits, has died at 94 at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, CNN reports. 'I Say a Little Prayer', sung by Aretha Franklin, 'What’s New Pussycat?' by Tom Jones, 'The Look of Love' by Dusty Springfield, 'Make It Easy on Yourself' by the Walker Brothers, are some of his hits. 'Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head', performed by BJ Thomas and featured in the film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', won a Grammy and an Oscar in 1969, while Bacharach’s music for the film won the Oscar for best original score. Dionne Warwick became one of Bacharach’s most enduring and fruitful collaborators, with hits such as 'Walk on By', 'Do You Know the Way to San Jose?', 'Anyone Who Had a Heart', 'A House is Not a Home'... As of 2014, Bacharach had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits and is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music.

Sleaford Mods have shared 'Force 10 From Navarone,' a collaborative track with Dry Cleaning's Florence Shaw that's from their upcoming album 'UK Grim', NME reports. Shaw's deadpan delivery fits right in with post-punk-meets-dance banger of a beat. "She’s the real deal and conjures the inspiration I get from the likes of Wu-Tang in the way she uses one word to convey a whole story" - Mods frontman Jason Williamson points out. As for the song, Williams says “The track is a conversation with myself coming to terms with happiness and whether it is in fact a darker space than my negativity and depression. Coupled with that it explores the myth of activism and inaction of the majority in the UK in the presence of a corrupt government.”

Michael Jackson's estate is working to sell half of their interests in Jackson’s discography for around $800 million to $900 million, Variety reports. Sony and a possible financial partner are negotiating to acquire 50% of the Jackson estate’s interests in a number of the artist’s sources of income, including his musical catalog, publishing, the MJ: The Musical Broadway show, and the upcoming biopic Michael.

Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi came up with an unusual idea - to pair Black Sabbath music and ballet dancing. Luckily, the idea is coming to fruition - 'Black Sabbath the Ballet' will premiere in Birmingham in September. It will feature eight Black Sabbath tracks - 'Paranoid', 'War Pigs', 'Orchid' and 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' among them, re-orchestrated for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, plus new music inspired by the band.

Google launched its AI knowledge accumulator and provider Bard, with Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai presenting the new service: "Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills".

“This is definitely not a ‘cutesy grannies have a go at punk’ band – this is serious fun, We write our own music and we’ve got a lot to say about everything we’re angry about" - Alison 'Fish' Dunne says to Guardian about joining Unglamorous Music project. It's a collective of older women from all classes and ethnicities, founded last year by 61-year-old Ruth Miller, which aim is to create a local punk scene for older, all-female bands who write their own music. It comes down to rebellion. Carole Jasilek, the 70-year-old drummer for Venus Attax, makes a strong point - “Punk was anarchic and what’s more anarchic than older women letting rip?”.

General sale tickets for the UK leg of Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance‘ tour were made available yesterday (Tuesday, February 7), however her fans were met with huge queues, NME reports. Fans have reported experiencing glitches on the Ticketmaster website, with others saying they were kicked out of the queue, which reportedly reached 500,000 on some dates. Ticketmaster has since clarified that reports of ‘403’ messages actually refer to the blocking of “known bad traffic”, adding that the site “blocked 1.5million requests of that type today in the London queues alone to ensure real fans get their hands on ticket

Charlie Thomas of the Drifters, best known for R&B hits like 'There Goes My Baby', 'Sweets For My Sweet', and 'Under the Boardwalk' with the Drifters, has died January 31 at the age of 85 from liver cancer, the New York Times reports. 'Save The Last Dance For Me' reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts, while 'There Goes My Baby,' and 'Up on the Roof' have become beloved R&B classics throughout the years. Thomas was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and dedicated more than 60 years to keeping the group’s music alive for future generations.

The four major recorded music companies – Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and indie collective Merlin – have cumulatively lost 12% of market share on Spotify over the past five years, MBW reports. In 2017 they accounted for 87% tracks played on Spotify, and last year 75% of plays of music tracks on the platform were distributed by the ‘big three’ majors or a Merlin member. The rest of the 25% was distributed by companies that were unaffiliated with the majors or Merlin. In related news, TikTok has launched its independent distribution platform SoundOn in Australia - it lets artists upload their music directly to TikTok and RESSO and can also distribute artists’ music to platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Instagram. SoundOn was already Live in the UK, US, Brazil, and Indonesia, after launching in March last year, the MBW reports.

Anonymous South Korean musician Parannoul released his third album 'After the Magic' featuring the stand-out track 'Arrival'. The symphonic guitar song is emblematic of the general dream-pop meets shoegaze sonics of the whole album. It's place where indie music wholeheartedly embraces pop music.

Beyoncé became the most decorated musician in Grammy history - with her win for the Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for 'Renaissance', she has now won 32 Grammys over the span of her career, CNBC reports. Viola Davis has become the 18th person to achieve the EGOT - winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award - by winning best audiobook for her autobiography 'Finding Me'. In other major awards, Harry Styles won Album of the year for 'Harry's House', Lizzo won Record of the year for 'About Damn Time', and Bonnie Raitt took home the Song of the year trophy for 'Just Like That'. Samara Joy was crowned Best new artist, Robert Glasper won Best R&B album for 'Black Radio III', Kendrick Lamar in both Best rap song and Best rap album categories with 'The Heart Part 5', and 'Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers', respectively. Ozzy Osbourne's 'Patient Number Nine', was named best rock album, while his song 'Degradation Rules' won best metal performance. British indie duo Wet Leg also received two awards - including best alternative album for 'Wet Leg' and best alternative song for their breakout single, 'Chaise Longue'. Meanwhile composer and violinist Stephanie Economou received the first ever Grammy for best video game soundtrack, recognising her work on 'Assassin's Creed: Dawn Of Ragnarok'. First Lady Jill Biden honored an “anthem” of the protests in Iran Sunday night, 'Baraye' by AcademicShervin Hajipour as she presented a new Grammy Award recognizing songs that address social change. See Grammys in pictures. Check out all the nominees and winners.

Kendrick Lamar's landmark 2015 album 'To Pimp a Butterfly' had overtaken the top spot on the popular community review site Rate Your Music, surpassing Radiohead’s 'OK Computer' as the highest-ranked album of all time. 'To Pimp a Butterfly' now has a 4.34 rating, the highest on the platform; 'OK Computer' is at 4.26. Rate Your Music uses a complex algorithm to calculate an album’s score, which considers factors including total number of reviews, each user’s activity level on the site, and more. Radiohead, however, have a total of three albums in the Top 10, Pink Floyd have two.

Irish contemporary folk band Lankum has shared their new song 'Go Dig My Grave'. The 9-minute single takes a turn into drone-folk territory, bringing swaths of ambient, funeral sonics. 'Go Dig My Grave' announces the band's fourth album 'False Lankum', coming out on Rough Trade Records the 24th of March 2023.