The big lockdown is changing what Americans are streaming these days, Quartz reports - the R'n'B singer Romeo Santos saw the largest dip of about 25%, followed by rapper Daddy Yankee with a 24% dip, and pop-metal collective Slipknot with a 23% fall (beginning of March compared to the beginning of April). On the other side, there's Kidz Bop, a band that makes versions of pop hits sung by children with lyrics modified for kids, who saw a jump of about 10%, with singer-songwriters Jack Johnson (performing children's music occasionally) and Mad DeMarco rising 9%. In genres, Latino saw the biggest dip of 26%, followed by rap which fell 20%, pop fell 17%, dance 13%, rock 9%, jazz 7%, reggae 6%. Religious music fell 5,6%, R'n'b' fell 4,8%, and country music 0,2%. Three genres saw a rise in streams in the US - classical was up 0,3%, folk 1,7%, with children's music being the biggest gainer - 9,7%.

Kidz Bop is an American brand of compilation albums featuring children singing contemporary pop songs, with an important difference - the lyrics are made kid-appropriate changing explicit lyrics to more decent ones. How does exactly Kidz Bop change lyrics? Take this quiz and find out.

Professor Robert Gjerdingen from Northwestern University has launched a website collecting thousands of pages of classical music lessons used in the Italian and French conservatories of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Music label Lost Map Records is releasing songs recorded by artists in isolation on the tiny Scottish island Eigg, which has about 100 permanent residents. According to the Guardian, Lost Map's residency project Visitations on the isle was started in 2018, attracting musicians such as members of British Sea Power and Jason Lytle, lead singer of Grandaddy. Visitors are set up in a secluded “bothy” cabin, where they are provided with accommodation, supplies, recording equipment and instruments, and have a week to create music inspired by their stay on the island. The results, released on vinyl and as digital downloads, are illustrative of the ideas residents have come up with to generate income as island life changes.

Ticketmaster has quietly changed its refund policy, making it harder now to get your funds back, Digital Music News reports. Ticketmaster’s previous policy indicated that “refunds are available if your event is postponed, rescheduled or canceled". However, the page was recently updated with new language which says only canceled events are eligible for refunds, and not “postponed or rescheduled” ones. Fans are allowed to resell their Ticketmaster resale marketplace.

BBC revealed the 10 most played songs on UK TV and radio of the last decade:

10. 'Sex On Fire' - Kings Of Leon

9. 'Forget You' - CeeLo Green

8. 'Counting Stars' - One Republic

7. 'Uptown Funk' - Mark Ronson, ft Bruno Mars

6. 'I Gotta Feeling' - Black Eyed Peas

5. 'Can't Stop The Feeling!' - Justin Timberlake

4. 'Get Lucky' - Daft Punk, ft Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers

3. 'Moves Like Jagger' - Maroon 5, ft Christina Aguilera

2. 'Rolling In The Deep' - Adele

1. 'Happy' - Pharrell Williams

Paul McCartney's handwritten lyrics for The Beatles' song 'Hey Jude' have sold at auction for £731,000 ($910,000), almost six times more than the £128,000 estimate, Independent reports. Three hundred items were on offer at Julien’s Auctions to mark the 50th anniversary of the band's split, and McCartney’s note was the biggest seller. Sir Paul wrote 'Hey Jude' to console the young Julian Lennon after the divorce of the boy's parents John and Cynthia, but changed the name to Jude because it sounded "a bit more country and western for me". A bass drumhead used in the opening concert of the Beatles' first North American tour fetched £161,000 ($200,000) at the same auction, four times its estimate. John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "BAGISM" drawing, featured in the couple's 1969 'Bed In Peace' documentary as part of their protest against the Vietnam War, sold for £75,000 ($93,750).

Italian classical singer Andrea Bocelli gave a moving performance from Milan's historic Duomo cathedral on Sunday evening, in a bid to inspire hope amid the global coronavirus pandemic. He performed sacred works from the empty cathedral, accompanied only by the cathedral's organist, Emanuele Vianelli. Livestream was watched by millions across the world. In quite a symbolic move, he stepped outside the church to sing the last song, 'Amazing Grace'.

Independent Brooklyn label Temporary Residence Ltd is making an album a day on their Bandcamp “pay what you want” until a vaccine for coronavirus is discovered. "The goal is to offer fans who may have lost their jobs the opportunity to continue to invest in and be inspired by our music... while fans who still have job security can pay whatever they think is fair", Temporary explained. Temporary Residence’s catalog includes albums from Mogwai, Envy, Explosions in the Sky, Beak>, Mogwai, William Basinski, Steve Moore, Songs: Ohia, Maserati, Eluvium, Field Works, Nick Zammuto, and more.

Radio networks around the world are seeing audience reach and listening hours increasing in double digits, radio programs have been trending on Twitter for the first time in years, radio listening has increased (along with TV streaming) at the expense of music streaming - Midia reports on an unexpected shift. What is it about the radio? - the connection, comfort, companionship – or the sheer live broadcast experience – works wonders for passing the time in isolation.

Phoebe Bridgers first recorded 'Kyoto' as a ballad, then changed it into a rawky-folk thing, a good move; Members of Power Trip & Fucked Up formed Masterpiece Machine, shared debut song, a powerful, industrial rock gem 'Rotting Fruit'; Mick Harvey shared 'Turkish Theme', an appropriately titled and melancholic song; 'Gap Tooth' is dancey synth-pop by Best Ex; former The Kills member Alison Mosshart shared her debut solo single 'Rise' - tense, simple rock with an accompanying message - "When the sky is coming down on ya/baby don’t look back/we will rise”; Cindy Lee's 'I Don’t Want To Fall In Love Again' is timeless, haunting, pretty and cold; Gorillaz have impressive guests on their new single 'Aries' - UK dance-pop singer Georgia on drums, and the legendary Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook; Seattle rapper Kateel looks back on his life’s journey in hip-hop banger 'I Aint Forgot'; Manga Saint Hilare goes halfway from grime to pop on 'Not Around', also looking on his younger days; Canadian singer-songwriter Camille Delean shared her graceful and disquieting 'Fault Line'; RnB singer Nylo goes with less-is-more with 'History of Sorry'.

Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation has donated $2,1 million to help victims of domestic violence in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 stay-at-home order. It's a joint donation with Twitter/Square CEO Jack Dorsey who has also committed $2.1 million to the fund ($4.2 million when put together). According to Vulture, an estimated 90 people per week have been turned away from full shelters since the stay-at-home order went into effect last month. The joint grant is expected to cover 90 domestic violence victims per week through 10 weeks.

Dolly Parton released a video with her reciting a new, witty poem about boredom and tension people are facing while everybody is at home. It's minute and a half long, a nice one: "This too shall pass as all things will. If the virus don't kill us, the staying home will. The kids are bored and restless. They scream and yell and squawk. And the teens and tweens, they're just plain mean. They bite your bleeping head off. And all those loving couples that were once so sweet and cozy? Now they fight like cats and dogs like Donald and Pelosi. Lord, get us back to school and get us back to work and get us out of this God dang house before someone gets hurt! And Lord, please find a vaccination in the form of a shot or a pill. Because if the virus don't kill us, the staying home will!".

Founder of legendary label Trax Records, Larry Sherman, has died of heart failure, with his family announcing that "he was of the Jewish faith and passed away on his holiday Passover", Exclaim reports. Sherman started the Trax imprint in Chicago in 1984 alongside Jesse Saunders, with it going on to become one of the world's most influential dance labels. Trax is also seen as the pioneer of acid house, releasing what's often considered the very first acid house release Phuture's 'Acid Tracks' (1987). Trax Records still exists to this day, run now by Rachel Cain (a.k.a. Screamin Rachael).

Radiohead are streaming previous concerts on YouTube today (5 p.m. New York time, 11 p.m. Paris time, 5. a.m. Friday Hong Kong time)

Dolly Parton‘s weekly livestream series 'Goodnight with Dolly' continues on YouTube with 'Coat of Many Colors' (7 p.m. / 1.a.m. / 7 a.m.)

Oneohtrix Point Never‘s new radio show 'Depressive Danny's Witches Borscht' kicks off with its first episode, 'Demented Ass 'Music' From Outer Space' on Elara.fm (9 p.m. / 3 a.m. / 9 a.m.)

Diplo is doing livestreamed DJ set 'The Thomas Wesley Show' on YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram (10 p.m. / 4 a.m. / 10 a.m.)

The Roots are sharing stuff on YouTube all week

Tomorrow, Friday, April 10

The Tallest Man on Earth is playing 'The Wild Hunt' in full for its 10th anniversary on YouTube (3 p.m. / 9 p.m. / 3 a.m.)

Kvelertak brings Live From Your Living Room, a livestreamed show and Q&A, to Vierlive (3 p.m / 9 p.m. / 3 a.m.)

'Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert' premieres on YouTube (3 p.m. / 9 p.m. / 3 a.m.)

Phoebe Bridgers on Pitchfork’s Instagram (4 p.m. / 10 p.m. / 4 a.m.)

Jehnny Beth of Savages is reading from her new book of erotic short stories, 'Crimes Against Love Manifesto (C.A.L.M.)', every Friday (at 4 p.m. / 10 p.m. / 4 a.m.)

On Saturday April 11, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews perform on At Home with Farm Aid (at 8 p.m. / 2 a.m. / 8 a.m.)

Brooklyn Vegan still keeps up a good list of livestreams.

Philadelphia rapper Chynna Rogers, best known as Chynna, died on Wednesday, at age 25, Pitchfork reports. Chynna was open about the opiate addiction she struggled with in the wake of her music taking off, addressing her trouble on her 2016 mixtape 'Ninety'. She released her 'in case i die first' EP at the end of last year.

Listeners worldwide are tuning into chiller, more mood-oriented music in the time of the big lockdown, while children’s music has seen the biggest spike in listening, Rolling Stone reports. Spotify has noticed people adding songs that are noticeably more acoustic, less danceable, and have lower energy. Pandora is seeing increases in categories like "cleaning", "wind-down", "focus", and "family". On Deezer, playlists like their “cosy coffeeshop” increased by 486%, “lazy indie” saw a 180% uptick, and the use of “mellow days", which features older rock, soul, disco tracks, rose by 305%. Spotify noted an increase in music geared to help kids sleep, Deezer’s “happy kids” playlist spiked up over 100%, while both Apple and Deezer also saw a significant boost in fitness-related listening.

Henry Rollins has begun a new online radio series called 'The Cool Quarantine' with the idea - "We play you songs, I tell you stories, and we do time together", the LA Times reports. The first episode is out now on KCRW - here - and it’s just over four hours long. It includes “live bootlegs of the Cramps recorded by Ian MacKaye, a story about the time Henry and Ian saw Led Zeppelin in 1977 (plus a bootleg recording from that performance), audio from original Joy Division album pressings, stories about the early days of Black Flag and Dischord Records”.

Pitchfork has a great and useful selection of five of the best apps available that allow beginners as well as professionals to make sounds together while physically apart. Endlesss is a new, free iOS app - its basic functionality involves looping drums, bass, and other sounds - good for making techno. SoundStorming - good for sharing new ideas made on guitars quickly. Bandpass for Android is a stripped-down, loop-based version of a digital audio workstation. Bandlab - good fit for musicians who want to try their hand at recording or production without having to download and install any additional software. Apple has launched a 90-day free trial of their $199 Logic Pro X DAW software for the first time ever; it has everything you need to start making music.

Apple Music is launching a $50 million advance royalty fund for indie labels, to offer them relief in time of coronavirus epidemic, the Rolling Stone reports. Independent labels that earn at least $10,000 in quarterly Apple Music earnings will qualify for the royalty advances. To qualify, the indie labels must have a direct Apple Music distribution deal. "Apple has a deep, decades-long history with music, and we are proud to be in close partnership with the best labels and artists in the world. We want to help” - Apple said in its letter to the indies.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have translated the structure of famous spike protein of the notorious coronavirus into music, The Next Web reports. The sounds all represent different aspects of the spikelike protein, and like all proteins, the spikes are made of combinations of amino acids. Using a new technique called sonification, MIT's scientists assigned each amino acid a unique note in a musical scale, converting the entire protein into a music score. Sound quite classical, slightly disharmonic, and benign... Listen to the 2-hour long composition below.

In the first quarter of this year, gross revenue for the Top 100 tours was a record $840 million, up 10.9% compared to the same period the previous year, while ticket sales rose 4.5% to 9.4 million. Based on that growth, Pollstar projects this year’s box office would have reached $12.2 billion had Q1’s percentage growth remained constant. Pollstar also forecasts the live industry would lose up to $8.9 billion of revenue if the rest of 2020 were to remain dark – a worst-case scenario and certainly not what is expected.

Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli will perform a concert on Easter evening at the historic Duomo Cathedral in Milan, Italy, to be offered as a global live-stream on YouTube, Reuters reports. Bocelli will be accompanied only by cathedral organist Emanuele Vianelli for the occasion. Sacral pieces slated for the set-list include 'Ave Maria' and Mascagni’s 'Sancta Maria'. The performance is titled 'Bocelli: Music for Hope', and it’ll be seen exclusively on Bocelli’s YouTube channel (at 7 p.m. Milan time, 1 p.m. Boston time, 1 a.m. on Monday Manila time).

Instagram Live is truly alive thanks to live battles of rap and R&B stars, with hundreds of thousands of viewers being able to witness hitmaker’s skills in going up against a peer song-for-song while also judging a catalog of work, Variety reports. The rules are as follows: two music-makers trade off tracks that they have credits on - in 90 second samples - then those in the virtual room choose the winner of each round. One of the first beat battles was between producers Swizz Beats - who boasted his Beyonce, Jay-Z and DMX classics, and Timbaland - he showed his catalog rich with Missy Elliot, Madonna and Rihanna. The audience is becoming festival-size big - on Saturday, 270,000 tuned in to see Lil Jon vs. T-Pain battle. Tory Lanez made history on the platform when Drake checked into his 'Quarantine Radio' on Instagram along with Justin Bieber, Megan The Stallion, Chris Brown and more when more than 300,000 viewers tuned in - breaking a record previously held by Taylor Swift.

American folk singer John Prine has died at 73 following complications with the COVID-19 coronavirus, NPR reports. Prine worked as a mailman in Chicago in the 1960s when he began singing at open mic nights. His first review came courtesy of the legendary Roger Ebert, who happened to catch a show of his at the folk club the Fifth Peg. Prine's self-titled debut came out in 1971 on Atlantic Records after he was championed by actor and musician Kris Kristofferson, and his last album 'The Tree of Forgiveness' came out in 2018. In 2010, he was honored with a tribute album that featured artists like My Morning Jacket, the Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst, Drive-By Truckers, and Bon Iver covering his songs. He had a considerable following from musicians, including Roger Waters, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan. “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism” - Dylan once said - “midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs”. Tennessean published a big biography of the singer, and the NPR has a great essay about him. Watch his great performance at Tiny Desk below, and listen to his after-I'm-dead song he wrote to himself here.

British pop singer Charli XCX is creating her new album 'How I'm Feeling Now' in isolation using only the tools she has at home to create all the music, the artwork, and the videos. She also invited her fans on Twitter to collaborate on the album - she will be posting demos, a cappellas, and her fans can send her beats or references. The singer says that, for her, "staying positive goes hand-in-hand with being creative, and so that's why I've decided that I'm going to use this isolation time to make a brand new album from scratch". Charli XCX aims to be done quickly - release date for the album is May 15. She already dropped the beginning of what will be her new song 'Forever'.

Hal Willner, a music producer for Marianne Faithfull, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, and Lucinda Williams, has died of complications related to the coronavirus, at age 64, CNN reports. He had also been involved with Saturday Night live, as the man behind the music skits, since 1980. But he remains perhaps best or most fondly remembered for the full-length salutes he helmed on borderless tribute albums to artists like Thelonious Monk and Kurt Weill, and the music of classic Disney films. New York Times described Willner as an author of "mixtapes of a city’s imagination".

Jesse Tabish wrote 'We Wait', his new song for his project Other Lives as a tribute to his old friend Tommy, who was shot and killed at the age of 25, Jennifer, Tommy's wife, had hired his murderer; Katie Harkin has played with Sleater-Kinney, Wild Beasts, Courtney Barnett’s band, with her new single 'Dail it In' going in a different direction - moody and atmospheric; Justin Vernon debuted brand new Bon Iver song 'Things Behind Things Behind Things' during Bernie Sanders stream, an old-school Bon Iver thing; Desire's 'Escape' comes from their first new album in 11 years; The Strokes are changing their sound - with 'Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus' they go into synth-pop territory; O'Brother released their new slow-burner 'Killing Spree' produced by Manchester Orchestra’s core duo of Andy Hull and Robert McDowell; a great video for 'Don't Slack' with Justin Timberlake and Anderson .Paak.

Since the outbreak, the UK government has been meeting with Britain's supermarket bosses to align on communication strategies that can minimise disruptive or irresponsible shopper behaviour, according to Wired. Music is one of a host of tricks supermarkets are using to try and encourage shoppers to maintain social distancing, and not to panic buy. Some surprising turns - Britney Spear's ‘Toxic’ has been struck off, The Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’ was also flagged as inappropriate, Lewis Capaldi isn’t getting much air time anymore as curators avoid ballads and downbeat tracks. Music policies, in general, have been made even more stringent to maintain a positive, if restrained, atmosphere.

Lady Gaga is to curate 'One World: Together at Home', a live-streamed and televised benefit concert with some of the biggest stars performing in support of the World Health Organization's Covid-19 solidarity response fund and in celebration of health workers around the world, CNBC reports. The lineup includes Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, Lizzo, J Balvin, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Burna Boy, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Elton John, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, and Lang Lang. American talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert will host the event, which broadcasts live across the US television networks ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as being streamed online - on Alibaba, Amazon Prime Video, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, LiveXLive, Tencent, Tencent Music Entertainment Group, TIDAL, TuneIn, Twitch, Twitter, Yahoo, and YouTube. It's on April 18 (at 8 p.m. New York time, 2 a.m. at Sunday 19 Geneva time, 8 a.m. Wuhan time)