New York City's Metropolitan Opera has canceled all fall performances due to the lockdown, because "Social distancing and the grand opera just don't go together", as Met's General Manager Peter Gelb said. "Our doctors, our medical advisors agree that as long as social distancing is required, we cannot put on performances here" - he added. The Met is currently hoping to re-open its doors on December 31, 2020.

The US music industry is largely shut down for 24 hours today in memory of George Floyd, and in solidarity with those protesting his death. All the major labels are participating in a day of industry silence along with indie labels, publishers, and distributors. Interscope also announced that it's blacking out its entire release schedule for this Friday, GMA reports. UK radio stations and TV channels have also changed their programmes to mark "Blackout Tuesday", reflecting on George Floyd's death in police custody, BBC reports. BBC Radio 1Xtra is hosting a series of discussions and debates, MTV will go silent for eight minutes (the length of time a white police officer knelt on Mr Floyd's neck), 4 Music will pause its output once an hour throughout the day.

No Signal is a DIY black radio station from the UK that broke through in the middle of lockdown. It was the controversial song clash format NS10v10 that catapulted them into the general consciousness - NS10v10 sees two representatives select 10 songs from opposing artists and battle it out in a round-for-round game of strategy and timing. The first one was 50 Cent vs. Drake. Gal Dem talked to women behind it.

Snoop Dogg recently signed a major endorsement deal with British food delivery Just Eats remixing their jingle, which many of their patrons found to be extremely annoying. Snoop twisted the negative feedback into a positive with his banging new update on the jingle, which has been viewed over 7 million times on YouTube alone. Snoop has banked over £5million since he landed the deal

Folk singer Ondara wrote and produced ‘Folk N’ Roll Vol 1: Tales of Isolation’ himself while in lockdown in Minneapolis in just one week, which is reflected heavily on this album with lyrics like "I'm not an essential worker" and "Hey Mr. landlord... I haven't paid my rent". Brooklyn Vegan compares the album to Bob Dylan, but adds "it feels just about as fleshed-out as its predecessor and Ondara's soaring voice and storytelling ability is still just as compelling".

"If anyone’s ever made this hard land great in the past, it’s been Black Americans" freelance journalist Piotr Orlov writes in a great essay about Black music - "the first musical art-form original to the United States". It was born of "a desire to express oneself within a society that did not want to hear any of what you had to say. A society that, in many cases, did not regard you as fully human". Black culture, on the other hand, is characterized by - "creation of culture, the strength of moral character, the depth of communal compassion". Black blues and jazz, Orlov argues, is "the basis of all great new music of the last 100 years—paving the way for the post-modern Black electronic music (hip-hop, house and techno and electro) which is the core of pretty much all popular sounds of the 21st century", but "we don’t get to have this music without the burden that preceded it".

"How precisely should we actually digest sounds such as this?" - the Quietus asks in their review of the new album by experimental duo Witch 'n' Monk (previously, they were named Bitch 'n' Monk). What's so hard about it? - "scrapes and squeaks... phonetic radio play... cosmic jam", and also "thrashy guitar riffs... Amazonian panpipe melodies... Bollywood strings... ecstatic samba". Guardian tagged it "best contemporary music" because they liked "stream-of-consciousness music", and some "manic musical collages". The general advice is - don't try this with your headphones on.

"I feel sorry for emerging bands who would have been promoting debut records this summer. They’ll be hit the hardest" - Foals said after they had to drop their whole tour - "But because we’re more established, we’ve been able to take a year off touring". Still, it hurts -"festivals account for approximately 80% of our income... We’ve been selling fans Foals T-shirts to support the crew. We’ve actually sold 3,000, which helped tide them over for a few months". Chelsea Wolfe described her experience - "canceling the tour was huge. I’d already invested so much money into booking the tour bus, renting the gear, paying for my crew, the flights, a week of their time for rehearsals, the stage dressings. None of that stuff is refundable. I’ve been able to sell some tour merch, which helps. It’s been cool to see fans wanting to support artists. Lots have left comments online saying: 'I was meant to see you play live, but I bought a T-shirt instead'".

Jay-Z has called on Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute those responsible for the killing of George Floyd to the “fullest extent of the law”, after reaching out directly to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to talk about the state’s handling of the crime. Jay-Z wrote Justice for Floyd is “just a first step” for healing the country, adding - “I am more determined to fight for justice than any fight my would-be oppressors may have”.

"Wealth and class play vital roles here" - the Quietus says in its analysis of new EP by dance music quartet Housekeeping. The Q is quite annoyed by their "adoption of musical forms rooted in black, queer, and working-class struggles", because "it feels remiss to ignore the absolutely deranged levels of privilege to which all four of its members have access". So, biographies: "Three of them tend to elide or remove references to their surnames, perhaps hoping to draw some distinction between their musical personas and their other public appearances. The mononymous Jacobi is a regular on the society pages under his full surname of Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, usually in relation to his aristocratic connections, while for Sebastian Macdonald-Hall (whose family’s combined wealth of £842m places them at 168th in this year's Rich List), it’s his commercial real estate empire. Carl Waxberg appears positively relatable by comparison, having merely been a director at Citibank for 13 years before launching his own investment fund". The EP they made is "an utterly unremarkable slab of tech-house... a blur of mediocrity, notable only for its steadfast refusal to challenge even the tamest clichés of mainstream club music: tautly-mixed kick drums sit politely alongside shuffling percussion, filter-swept basslines and elegantly narcotised vocals".

"We're going down a heavily production-oriented route - pyrotechnics, CO2 jets, fireworks, lasers, LED walls, and light shows, which go above and beyond what you would experience in your average club setting" - Steffan Chelland, an events organiser, told BBC about drive-in raves he's hoping to organize in July.

Lockdown has made musicians and labels creative in coming up with ways to reach their audience, Vice reports on changes in the music industry. Artists are setting up livestreams and Zoom-based music lessons, labels are waiving their own share of revenue on commission-free days. Coronavirus is also forcing labels to think outside the box, whether that means snapping socially distant press photos or pivoting music videos ideas to living-room productions. Not everything is great - without the option of meeting musicians in person and seeing them play live, many labels are pressing pause on talent discovery and focusing on their current rosters. On the other hand, labels are thinking that when touring comes back, it'll give their albums a second burst of interest...

“We were peaceful, hands up, not moving, not breaching the line. [Police] opened fire of rubber bullets and tear gas multiple times on us" - Halsey wrote after she was struck by rubber bullets and shrapnel and gassed while participating in a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles on Saturday. The wounds did not brake her - “most of us were simply begging them to have empathy, to reconsider humanity and our nations history and future. The frontline did not relent. I will be returning”.

"'Laurel Canyon' is a nearly four-hour exercise in bliss, throwing us back to a fleeting time when musical warmth and formal excellence went hand in hand and made the whole world want to go “California Dreamin’". With apologies to Joni Mitchell, this, not Woodstock, is the garden you’ll be left wanting to get back to" - Variety writes in a review of a new documentary by Alison Ellwood (first episode aired on Epix on Sunday). The Los Angeles neighborhood has in the ‘60s and ‘70 housed rising artists including Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Frank Zappa, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Doors, the Mamas & the Papas, the Monkees, Love, the Eagles and dozens of other soon-to-be-famous artists. Hollywood Reporter says "the director has a sure feel for the essence of the period and its players, and for the social and emotional impact of their songs".

Gunna earned his first chart-topper at the Billboard 200 with 'Wunna', which sold in 110,000 equivalent album units, mostly through streaming - 106,000 units, equating to 143.6 million on-demand streams - 4,000 units are credited to album sales. Other debuts on the chart include The 1975‘s 'Notes on a Conditional Form', which enters this week at No. 4 with a total of 54,000 equivalent album units including 39,000 from album sales, Billboard reports.

Rapper Maserati E arrived in San Quentin state prison in 2017, and after seeing fellow prisoner David Jassy rapping, the two started making an album with other inmates. They wanted “a real opportunity to change the narrative” around incarceration, Rolling Stone reports. There were two rules - no swearing and no glorifying the criminal lifestyle. Their first mixtape is out now. Jassy is out of prison (sentenced reduced partly thanks to that mixtape), but he continues to make music with prisoners still in San Quentin.

The Flaming Lips shared a brand new song 'Flowers of Neptune 6', mellow and pretty, the video features frontman Wayne Coyne in his signature plastic bubble; Canadian secretive cowboy Orville Peck released 'No Glory in the West', an outlaw-country song; Wayne Phoenix released a new video, explicit and moving 'Mood'; Ghanaian Afro-dancehall and reggae star Stonebwoy released 'Le Gba Gbe (Alive)' - a song all about positivity.

The Streets have shared a new documentary on the making of their upcoming mixtape ‘None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive’, NME reports. The new documentary features a number of the mixtape’s collaborators, including Tame Impala‘s Kevin Parker, IDLES, Slowthai and more. Mixtape, The Streets’ first full-length project since 2011 album ‘Computers And Blues’ and mixtape ‘Cyberspace And Reds’, is out July 10.

A great read in Mel magazine about t.A.T.u., the Russian band from the early 2000s that featured lesbian identity and image. Lena Katina and Julia Volkova weren't then, and aren't now lesbians (both are married to men), but that project (guided by a psychologist) sparked a cultural shift in their anti-gay nation. Does it matter that t.A.T.u. were never the real deal? - Mel asks Russians from the LGBTQ milieu, whose lives were changed by the band.

Neil Young is creating his own version of bootleg series - the plan is to take famous concert bootlegs, track down the actual master recordings and release them himself via his website. He promises "radically better sound" than on usual bootlegs. Young plans on bootlegging the bootleggers by using artwork from the original release. Frank Zappa did something very similar with his Beat the Boots! series in the early Nineties.

Rapper Killer Mike made an impassioned plea to residents of Atlanta asking them to not vandalize their city while also expressing rage over the murder of George Floyd. “We have to be better than burning down our own homes because if we lose Atlanta, what else we got?” - Killer Mike asked. “It is your duty to not burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize”. He condemned the murder of Floyd, calling for a better system - "we don’t want to see targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up systemic racism, burn to the ground”. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon has shared a similar sentiment: "A police state cannot fix what a police state has broken. Only equal freedom and protection of all citizens can begin to reset the scales of justice”.

Working-from-home-themed playlists have seen a 1,400% increase on Spotify during lockdown, with Fifth Harmony’s single 'Work from Home' the most-added track to those playlists (it's actually about waiting for a lover to come home). Dolly Parton’s '9 to 5', Beethoven, Bach and the pianist Lang Lang’s version of 'Für Elise' follow, as well as 'Circles' by Post Malone, and 'Don’t Start Now' by Dua Lipa. Specific playlists have also seen a surge - Cleaning Kit playlist, a six-hour medley of songs to mop to, has had a 30% increase in streaming, painting-themed playlists are up by 90%, baking by 120%, and gardening playlists up by 430%.

In a simple and effective marketing move, Lady Gaga was delivering her new album 'Chromatica' by herself yesterday. She posted a picture of herself in the driver's seat of a mid-sized transport truck, adding "delivering 'Chromatica' myself to every retailer around the world. In Chromatica time and distance do not exist". Her disco-pop album is out today.

Rapper Killer Mike of Run the Jewels has called, in a new op-ed for Colorlines, on black communities in the USA to carry guns. Black people in this country, please take full advantage of your Second Amendment rights. People of color, people who are not in the majority in this country, please take shooting, training, and the protection of your rights seriously" he wrote, adding - "The only person you can count on to protect yourself and your family is you. God gave you the right to use whatever tools available to defend your rights... God gave us the right to use all available tools to defend ourselves and that is what we intend to do".

Dropkick Murphys will a host concert today at Boston's Red Sox Fenway Park with no fans in attendance, which marks the first time a musical performance has ever taken place at an empty major U.S. arena, stadium or ballpark. Bruce Springsteen will virtually accompany the band for a Double Play during the performance that's dubbed Streaming Outta Fenway. They'll be playing for an empty stadium, but "it beats playing at home," Dropkick Murphys' lead singer and bassist Ken Casey said. Fans can tune in to the concert on Springsteen's exclusive SiriusXM radio channel 20 E Street Radio, or watch the livestream show for free until May 31.

A great and funny read in the Tablet magazine by David Yaffe, a professor of humanities about - Pete Townshend's nose. "Townshend’s nose is the heavyweight champion. It’s an English nose unlike most any other, turned up to eleven... When Daltrey first met Townshend, he described him as 'a nose on a stick'. Daltrey seemed like a bully. Townshend seemed like the kid getting bullied, until he would, one day, rise up and take it out on all those guitars... [Townshend] was old when he was young, too. He strode the world’s largest stages with a certain reluctance. The music was aggressive, but he was taciturn, and kind of awkward. Exceedingly neurotic, he questioned himself and his role as a rockstar throughout his whole career".

Indie-folk singer-songwriter Waxahatchee has announced a run of five livestreams where she will play all five of her albums in their entirety. She'll play five virtual sets, one every Monday in June, performing one of her albums in full at each. She will be raising money for her band and crew, but also for indie promoters around the country - "who have been so warm and hospitable to me over the years but are now facing a huge strain on their business". At NoonChorus.com, a $15 per show.

Some great thoughts on touring, and lack thereof, by Rosanne Cash in The Atlantic: "The essential attitude adopted by most touring musicians I know - just show up and do it, and don’t whine about the lack of sleep, the equipment problems, the long drives, the missed meals, the airports, the delayed flights, the sometimes-weird audiences, the stalkers, the reviews, the food, or the hotel... I’ve long had a complicated relationship with touring, and the pandemic has made it only more difficult. I always knew what life on the road was costing me. But I didn’t fully appreciate what it gave me until suddenly it was gone".

"These songs are about taking action - using experience as a teacher and a guide" which makes for Medhane's "most present and clear-eyed project", as Pitchfork says in review (tagged it Best new music, grade 8,4). His raps got better - "there is even more force and focus behind his bars", as well as production - "the beats are gorgeously gritty, warped yet whole; he remolds jazz and soul samples as if from particles of sand, which brings the clarity of the raps into sharper relief".

MIDiA sees five emerging revenue sectors that could collectively be the music industry’s growth driver in the near future:

Contextual experiences -  Instead of bring your own music, the trend will be the context will bring it

The vast majority of the millions of independent artists will spend much more on creator tools than they will ever earn from their music

Virtual events - the sector is in desperate need of commercial structure and product tiering

Monetising fandom - virtual merch, artist badges, premium chat, artist avatars

Vast amount of music-centred social activity on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok has not yet been properly monetised, which makes for a gaping hole of opportunity