“YOU NO TALK! YOU NO TALK! YOU NO PLAY! YOU COST ME! WHY YOU NO PLAY? YOU WANT ME KILL YOUR FRIEND?” - a supposed boss of supposed Taipei mafia was yelling on Richard Marx's phone in 1989 when the singer postponed his Taipei show due to heavy rain. He describes in his new memoir how they took his agent Randy Garelick hostage, demanding Marx to play two shows the day after, no matter the weather. He agreed, of course. Rolling Stone brings an excerpt of the book.

Pop singer-songwriter Raye spoke about her label travails in a series of emotional posts on Twitter. “I have been on a 4 ALBUM RECORD DEAL since 2014 !!! And haven’t been allowed to put out one album" - Raye wrote. Clash Music came to the conclusion that there’s only a small number of boxes in which the industry is willing to place them – if an artist doesn’t fit easily into those boxes, then there’s an issue.

The unpleasant story of Britney Spears' conservatorship took another twist this week. First, the Los Angeles Superior Court has denied a months-old request by Spears’ attorney, Samuel Ingham III, to remove her father, Jamie Spears, as her sole conservator. Singer's father has, however, filed documents that show Jamie Spears is the conservator of the estate, controlling her financial decisions, and that Jodi Montgomery is the temporary conservator over the person, at her request, controlling her health treatment and other personal care issues. The documents also reveal that Jamie Spears has been cut off from communicating with Britney Spears, as Variety reports. Also, Britney Spears has yet to file a petition to terminate her conservatorship.

Ariana Grande has partnered with Better Help, an online portal providing direct mental health support, to give away $1 million worth of free therapy to her fans who can't afford it, NME reports. Her effort will match those interested with a licensed therapist for one free month, which anyone can sign up for at BetterHelp.com/Ariana. After the month is up, people will have the option to renew and continue using Better Help's services while getting 15% off the second month.

Damon Dash tried to auction off his ownership of the copyright to Jay Z’s first album, 'Reasonable Doubt'. At first, Dash wasn't so clear he didn't want to sell the entire Reasonable Doubt album as an NFT - he wanted to sell his one-third ownership share of Roc-a-Fella as NFT. However, Jay-Z raised a lawsuit, and on June 22, a New York judge ruled in favor of Jay-Z to stop the auction. Three days later, on 25th anniversary of 'Reasonable Doubt', Jay Z and artist Derrick Adams collaborated to auction NFT artwork for the classic album. Trapital explains the hassle.

Norwegian company Elire is planning to create a doomsday vault to preserve the world’s most important music recordings for at least 1,000 years, with the same safeguards offered by the Arctic World Archive and the Global Seed Vault, two existing storage facilities housed underground in the Svalbard archipelago, Billboard reports. Buried almost 1,000 feet below a snow-covered mountain, on an arctic island Svalbard midway between Norway and the North Pole, and using future-proof digital storage, the vault will store recordings of everything from major-label pop hits like the Beatles to Australian Indigenous music. The vault is built to withstand the kind of extreme electromagnetic pulses that could result from a nuclear explosion, which could permanently damage electronic equipment and play havoc with digital files. An extra level of protection will come from Svalbard’s low temperature and dry permafrost conditions. Elire intends to make money by charging companies and individuals for deposits to the vault. It also plans to make the vault’s contents accessible to listeners around the world, when it has the permission of rights holders, and share the revenue this generates with creators.

Megan Thee Stallion won a leading four awards Sunday at the BET Awards -rapper won best female hip-hop artist, best collaboration and best video of the year for 'Wap' with Cardi B, and the viewers’ choice award for 'Savage' with Beyoncé. Chris Brown won best male R&B/Pop Artist, and Oscar winner H.E.R. won female R&B/Pop Artist. The annual awards celebrate the year in Black music, TV, film, sports and social impact and this edition touted the “year of the Black woman,” with Queen Latifah receiving the Lifetime Achievement BET Award. Billboard lists all the nominees and winners.

"In his pursuit of something he came to call Fourth World music Jon Hassell exerted an influence on his contemporaries that went far beyond the immediate popularity of his own work. To create “a contemporary coffee-coloured classical music”, Hassell drew together strands of music from around the world to make something that, without compromising its own identity, seemed to belong everywhere" - Guardian writes in the obituary to the trumpeter and composer.

UK post-rock/post-metal band Bossk released their first full-length album, including the hypnotizing closer 'Unberth'; Angel Du$t make a turn from punk to indie pop with 'Love Is The Greatest'; Damon Albarn shares a lovely meditative piece 'The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows'; Afflecks Palace share a Blur-y 'This City Is Burning Alive'; Vince Staples is in top form on 'Law Of Averages'; She Drew The Gun share a banging indie-pop song 'Cut Me Down'.

"As clubs shut down across the world, however, a shift was occurring in China: the sleeping giant of the East was waking to the steady rumble of bass and the snipping of hi-hats. 'Literally as soon as they opened, everyone went to the club; they got really packed, especially in Beijing', explains Ranyue Zhang aka Slowcook, a resident at Beijing’s Zhao Dai Club. 'As soon as you turn on a smoke machine or a flashing light, people start screaming… It’s not even about the music; anything will make them happy'" - Mix Magazine writes announcing a shift in the Chinese electronic music scene which, for a lack of options, turned to itself.