Hipgnosis Songs has acquired 100% of Grammy Award-winning songwriter, producer and music executive L.A. Reid's publishing interests and writers share of income in his 162-song catalog. Reid's catalog includes Boyz II Men’s Grammy-winning 'End of the Road', Bobby Brown’s 'Every Little Step', 'Don’t Be Cruel', 'Roni' and 'Rock Wit’Cha', as well as Whitney Houston’s smash 'I’m Your Baby Tonight' and 'Queen of the Night', from 'The Bodyguard'. LA Reid He has also scored hits with the Whispers, Sheena Easton, Karyn White, TLC and Toni Braxton. Hipgnosis Songs' revenues soared in its first full year of business, climbing to $81 million in the 12 month period ended in March 2020 from around $8.9 million in the preceding period, Music Business Worldwide reports. The firm, which has been on an unprecedented acquisition binge of hit songwriter and producer catalogs - between March 2019 and March 2020, the company spent nearly $700 million to acquire 42 catalogs.

Ian Curtis’ signature Vox Phantom guitar, which most famously appeared in Joy Division’s 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' video, was auctioned off on Tuesday for £162,562, Far Out magazine reports. The guitar also toured with the late Joy Division frontman during the band’s 1980 European tour and was used on the recording of 'Closer' track 'Heart and Soul'. Following Curtis' untimely death, the guitar passed on to bandmate Bernard Sumner, who eventually gave it to his Electronic colleague Johnny Marr. Fifteen years later, Marr later returned the guitar back to Sumner, who finally left it with Curtis’ daughter, Natalie, who now sold it.

The Danish toy company has announced a new Fender Stratocaster construction set based on a fan-submitted piece that won the 2020 LEGO Ideas contest, Brick Fanatics reports. The guitar set will be the first in a new music-centric series of LEGO releases, as the company looks to concentrate on its adult consumers.

The British government on Monday announced grants of 257 million pounds to help almost 1,400 arts and cultural organizations survive the coronavirus pandemic, Independent reports. The money goes to theaters, music venues, museums, and cultural organizations such as the London Symphony Orchestra, which received 846,000 pounds, Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where The Beatles shot to fame, which got a grant of 525,000 pounds, and The Brudenell, widely considered to be one of the UK’s greatest grassroots venues, with 220,429 pounds. The money is the first chunk to be spent from a 1.57-billion-pound Culture Recovery Fund.

Australian indie-pop band Lime Cordiale leads the pack for the 2020 ARIA Awards with eight nominations for their album '14 Steps to a Better You', including nods for album of the year and best group. Tame Impala is up for seven ARIAs with 'The Slow Rush', including a nod for album of the year. Hip-hop artist Sampa The Great is in the running for six ARIAs for her debut album 'The Return'. Also, among the nominees are Indigenous artist Miiesha, Britpop revivalists DMA’s, rockers Violent Soho, as well as Ruel, Amy Shark, Archie Roach, Jessica Mauboy, The Teskey Brothers, Tones and I, Troye Sivan, Cold Chisel, The Kid LAROI, Baker Boy and others.

BTS leader RM mentioned South Korea's shared "history of pain" with the US over the 1950-53 conflict, in which the two countries fought together, while accepting an award, but his remarks have angered Chinese social media users, as Beijing backed the North in the war. Adverts featuring BTS from companies including Samsung, sports brand Fila and car manufacturer Hyundai disappeared from a number of Chinese websites or social media platforms. "They [BTS] should not make any money from China" one user commented on Weibo, New York Times reports, adding - "if you want to make money from Chinese fans you have to consider Chinese feelings".

Grime pioneer Dizzee Rascal has been made an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for his services to music, Sky reports. Dizzee Rascal is considered to have been one of the founding fathers of grime. In 2003, aged 19, the East London MC became the youngest artist to win the Mercury Prize, with his debut album 'Boy in da Corner'. He has become a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, while hip hop duo Krept and Konan are awarded the BEM - the British Empire Medal.

Song Exploder is a music podcast featuring musicians talking about the creative process behind an individual song while "deconstructing" the song into its component parts. The songs vary a lot - pop, hardcore punk, metal, r'n'b, etc. This month SE had moved to Netflix to become a documentary.

Killer Mike is one of the founding members of the new Black-owned digital bank Greenwood, which distinguishes itself from other digital banks with its emphasis on outreach to Black and Latinx communities, CNN reports. The venture officially launches in January of 2021 but has already received “tens of thousands” of account requests. In addition to offering checking and savings accounts, peer-to-peer transfers, and mobile deposits, the bank allows two-day payday advances for those with direct deposit. Additionally, Greenwood specializes in providing financing for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs, who often face barriers in acquiring small business loans from typical banking services.

Rapper 21 Savage and producer Metro Boomin land on top of the Billboard 200 chart with their third collaborative album, 'Savage Mode II', earning 171,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. last week, Billboard reports. K-pop girl quartet Blackpink enter Billboard's list at No. 2 with their debut full-length 'The Album', with 110,000 equivalent album units earned. On the other side of the ocean, Queen + Adam Lambert debut at Number 1 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart with a live collection 'Live Around The World'. It's Queen's first No. 1 album in 25 years. Blackpink are No. 2 in the UK as well.

Jack White performed on Saturday Night Live, accompanied by drummer Daru Jones and bassist Dominic John Davis. They played a bit of White's Beyoncé collaboration, 'Don’t Hurt Yourself', before transitioning into 'Ball and Biscuit' reworked to feature lyrics from 'Jesus is Coming Soon', a traditional gospel song about the 1918 Spanish Flu that was famously performed by Blind Willie Johnson. They finished with 'Lazaretto', for which White played Eddie van Halen model guitar, and in a further nod to Van Halen, White briefly played a finger-tapping solo on the guitar.

Liraz Charhi, an Israeli singer of Persian heritage, will in November release an album she made by working in secret with Iranian musicians, Guardian reports. The two countries consider each other arch-enemies, yet 42-old singer and actress contacted several Iranian artists online – singers, composers, players of tradition bağlama stringed instruments - to collaborate on her second Farsi-language album, 'Zan' (meaning “women”).

BMG will eliminate the application of the controlled composition clause which reduces royalty payments for artists that write their own songs, for all releases going forward, regardless of what each artist’s contract says, Music Business Worldwide reports. The control composition has been used to reduce songwriting royalty payments, allowing labels to pay such artists/songwriters only 75% of the statutory mechanical rate, currently 9.1 cents per song; and to limit royalty payments to 10 songs, even if an album has 14 songs. German music company made the move as part of its ongoing review of historic artist and songwriter contracts for anomalies or inequities.

Ted Kessler, final editor of Q Magazine has praised Beautiful South singer Paul Heaton for his generosity, revealing how Heaton supported staff when the publication closed, BBC reports. Kessler explained how the star made a large donation to the magazine this summer, which was shared amongst 40 staff and freelancers working for Q at the time. "It was just meant to make sure people weren't left on their arse" - Heaton said.

Windchimes melt black metal, hardcore and post-rock on 'Zetsubo//Succumb To'; Big Boi, Sleepy Brown, Killer Mike & Big Rubequite released a protest song 'We The Ones' in the vein of funk-infused southern rap; Channel Tres shows how it sounds when hip-hop and house combine on 'Skate Depot'; Stevie Nicks looks to the heavens on 'Show Them The Way'; proggy rockers Transit Method released a video for four of their recently published songs.

Former Happy Mondays tour manager Anthony Murray was arrested along with 15 others at a port in Istanbul when authorities found 500 pounds of cocaine aboard a ship from Colombia, The Sun reports. Turkish police - who thought his drugs gang was called the Happy Mondays - allege Murray was "management level" in the operation and was known as "Doctor". Murray claims he was "only heading to the country for a nose job". This is not the first major drug arrest for Murray - in 2014, he was sentenced to three years in prison over a 64 pound cannabis deal.

Van Halen saw an uptick of over 6,000 percent in album and song sales in the US in the day after Eddie Van Halen's death, Billboard reports. The total rise came from 40,000 copies of collected Van Halen albums and songs sold on Oct. 6, compared to just under 1,000 on the day before. Going by just album sales, Van Halen's catalog reportedly sold 9,000 copies on Oct. 6, an increase of 5,835 percent when compared to a negligible amount from Oct. 5. As far as songs, the group sold 31,000 single tracks on Oct. 6, with the most popular song, 'Jump', going in 3,000 copies.

Rapper T.I. has offered a monetary reward for anyone able to help with a kidney donation to his fellow rapper Scarface, SOHH reports. T.I. is offering a "bag of money". 49-year old Scarface is looking for someone to donate their kidney to him after a long battle with the coronavirus left him with permanent organ damage this year.

Streams of mental health playlists on Spotify have doubled this year, during the coronavirus pandemic, Independent reports. Playlists related to "mindfulness", "calm", and "self-care" have been streamed 57 per cent more in 2020 than they were last year. Podcasts related to self-help and self-care have seen a 122 per cent increase in streams.

Berlin-based drummer and keen modular synthesist Merlin Ettore filmed himself from an overhead perspective while playing his instruments. His exclusive set for the Fact magazine shows Ettore playing his drum kit and the Eurorack modular system.

The Flaming Lips are planning a concert in their hometown of Oklahoma City where both the band and the audience will be in giant bubbles, Brooklyn Vegan reports. Band's Wayne Coyne said they started the bubble thing in 2006 as a joke "and now it's becoming kind of serious and real". Coyne says three people fit in each giant bubble, adding, from his personal experience, that it holds a lot of air. The idea is to hold a big concert, maybe even two concerts in one night.

Foo Fighters have launched a new digital zine The People of Rock and Roll, featuring countless memories directly from Foo Fighters fans. Readers can filter through the 135 pages of stories at the time of publication by narrowing down to a specific bandmember or location.

Rapper Tory Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, has been charged with shooting rapper Megan Thee Stallion in his car in the Hollywood Hills earlier this year, New York Times reports. Lanez is charged with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. He also faces a gun allegation and that he personally inflicted great bodily injury shooting Megan Thee Stallion at her feet. If convicted as charged, Lanez faces a possible maximum sentence of 22 years.

Listeners to BBC Radio 2's Sounds of the 80s have chosen U2's 'The Joshua Tree' as the best album of the 1980s. Released in 1987, it made U2 one of the world's biggest bands, thanks to anthems like 'With Or Without You' and 'Where The Streets Have No Name', BBC reflects. Dire Straits' 'Brothers In Arms' came second in BBC's survey, followed by The Stone Roses' eponymous debut, Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' on fourth and Guns N' Roses' 'Appetite for Destruction' on the fifth spot.

The unusual story about Britney Spears' conservatorship just got a new twist - singer's court-appointed lawyer Samuel Ingham told an L.A. judge she lacks the capacity to sign a declaration expressing her wishes and compared her to a "comatose" person. Furthermore, according to Billboard, Ingham filed that the conservatorship is voluntary, and if Spears wants out, Ingham can file the paperwork.

47% of music listeners feel it is important for the industry to offer livestream performances or virtual concerts, new Music 360 Report by MRC Data shows. So far only 25% of music listeners have tuned in to one of these shows, Billboard reports. Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren estimates the current value of the business at around $1 billion, with the potential to grow to the "tens of billions" within three years.

New York’s jazz festival Vision has been rescheduled and adapted for the sour times we live in now - it will take place both live and online starting Thursday, October 8 with a livestream solo performance by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, Jazz Times reports. A series of events - including performances by Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille, Amina Claudine Myers, and William Parker - will follow through Monday, October 12 that will be both livestreamed and held in front of an outdoor audience. The outdoor edition will be limited-capacity, socially distanced. Daily outdoor tickets are $75, and virtual tickets are $15.

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is a new band playing atmospheric emo - 'We Love You So Much'; Divide and Dissolve play classical doom on 'We Are Really Worried About You'; Dizzee Rascal is in good form on 'Act Like You Know'; CocoRosie summoned together ANOHNI, Big Freedia, Brooke Candy, and Cakes da Killa on 'End of the Freak Show' in an effort to vote the American president out of the office; Bicep go natural and ambient on 'Apricots'.

Johnny Nash was a singer-songwriter, actor, and producer, who started as a pop crooner to evolve into an early reggae star, releasing on the way the million-selling anthem 'I Can See Clearly Now', has died at aged 80 of natural cause, Variety reports. A rare American-born singer of reggae, Nash has also helped launch the career of his friend Bob Marley.

Nomcebo Zikode released 'Jerusalema' at the end of 2019 in South Africa, soon becoming one of the biggest local songs of the summer there. The song has since reached the top five on music charts in Belgium, France, Hungary, Netherlands and Switzerland. It has been streamed almost 55m times on Spotify, the music video has been watched more than 170m times on YouTube and 385m on TikTok. In September 'Jerusalema' became the most Shazammed song in history. Guardian tells the story of the birth of the song.