Master tapes are the direct result of all those hard days, weeks, and months in the studio. They’re the fully realized artistic vision, not just notes on a page, and their mismanagement can have enormous financial consequences - Quartz writes in its breakdown of owning your master tapes.

Sony Music Publishing has bought the “complete collection” of Pual Simon’s classic songs spanning more than six decades, from his time as a member of Simon & Garfunkel, through his career as a solo artist, Forbes reports. The acquired songs include evergreen hits such as 'The Sound of Silence', 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'The Boxer', 'Mrs. Robinson', 'Homeward Bound', 'I Am A Rock', 'America', 'Graceland', and many others. Sony didn’t disclose the price of this deal, but it is believed than it ran into a nine-figure sum.

Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, Celeste, Joel Corry and Young T & Bugsey lead Brit Awards 2021 nominations with three noms apiece. The British album category also features four out of five female nominees for the first time in Brits history, with the aforementioned women joined by Jessie Ware and J Hus. Also, more than half the nominees in key categories are non-white, making the most diverse nominations in the event's history, as Sky emphasizes. Alexis Petridis points out that - "by recognising UK rap and women’s creativity, the Brits are finally in tune".

The Pact, a group of top-level songwriters, released a letter calling for an end to one of the longest-running open secrets of the music industry: the practice of artists demanding credit and publishing for songs they did not write, Variety reports on the brave activism of music authors. Why now? - this rude practice has actually grown worse in recent years as the value of publishing and awareness of that value has risen. The Pact includes co-writers of songs by Dua Lipa (Emily Warren), Justin Bieber (Justin Tranter), Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande (Victoria Monet), the Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, and many others.

Spotify announced the acquisition of Betty Labs, the creators of Locker Room, a live audio app focused on sports talk, with the aim to build its own rival to the buzzy Clubhouse live-audio chat app, MBW reports. Spotify’s deal values Betty Labs at around $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Betty Labs first launched Locker Room for sports fans in October 2020. Spotify said it plans to rebrand the app (but keep it separate) to “evolve and expand” Locker Room into an enhanced live audio experience for a wider range of creators and fans, offering sports, music, and cultural programming along with interactive features that enable creators to connect with listeners in real time.

"It is a statement about the beauty of slowing down, of not worrying about what you say and instead focusing on how you feel" - Pitchfork writes Lost Girls' 'Menneskekollektivet’, the debut LP from the Norvegian duo Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden. Sonically, it's "a dance record, a heady cocktail of muted drum machines and hypertrophied synthesizers", while its "inherently unfinished quality makes it feel naturalistic, deeply human". Beats Per Minute argues 'Menneskekollektivet' is "a fun time; an unorthodox album that borders on a million genres and commits to none".

The Conversations looks for reasons for cassette's comeback: Independent musicians have been looking to the sale of physical products and merchandise as a means of generating income. Cassettes actually represented a cost-effective means of providing a physical product, far cheaper than pressing a vinyl record and printing sleeves and packaging... Many people have reported feelings of digital detachment and alienation during the pandemic. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest that a desire for something we can actually feel, embellished with a nostalgic glow from a COVID-free past, may also explain the resurgence of the audio cassette.

Lil Nas X had months to plan out a strategy for the release of his latest video 'Montero (Call Me By Your Name)', which sees him ending up in hell (for being gay, right?), and taking the crown of the devil himself, as Mashable has noticed. Rapper Joyner Lucas accused him of cheating on kids who liked 'Old Town Road', to which Lil Nas X answered "i literally sing about lean & adultery in old town road. u decided to let your child listen. blame yourself". South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was offended by the "Satan Shoes"; Lil Nas X believes she's got better things to do: "ur a whole governor and u on here tweeting about some damn shoes. do ur job!".

10-year-old music wonderkid Nandi Bushell published a video of herself opening up a gift from Muse's Matt Bellamy - a signature guitar model. Bushell has covered 'Plug in Baby' witch caught the attention of Muse's frontman, who sent her the model, and the polite and nice girl was really happy with the gift. Previously, Bushell has covered Muse's 'Hysteria'.

"Even if you’ve heard them a million times or come across them in a dozen movie soundtracks, classics like 'My Girl', 'Come See About Me', or 'The Tracks of My Tears' still sound almost impossibly fresh, just as the radical spirit of 'What’s Going On' or 'Living for the City' resonates perfectly in our present political moment. And amid all the hits, there are still lesser-known gems to be discovered" - Rolling Stone writes introducing the 100 greatest Motown songs list, 60 years after label's first Number One hit, 'Please Mr. Postman', by the Marvelettes.

Britney Spears spoke for the first time about the New York Times' documentary 'Framing Britney Spears' saying that she had cried for two weeks after seeing parts of it (she never saw the whole thing), Billboard reports. However, it's the other thing that she has said that speaks volumes about her mental health: "I do what I can in my own spirituality with myself to try and keep my own joy … love … and happiness !!!! Every day dancing brings me joy !!! I'm not here to be perfect … perfect is boring … I'm here to pass on kindness !!!! ... My life has always been very speculated … watched … and judged really my whole life !!! For my sanity I need to dance... every night of my life to feel wild and human and alive !!!".

Brian Rohan, the San Francisco “dope lawyer” who represented rock clients like Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Santana, Aerosmith, Boston, Jefferson Airplane, and Kris Kristofferson, has died at 84, Consequence of Sound reports. Rohan's rock career was opened by Grateful Dead in 1966 when he helped them organize their first album contract with Warner Bros. Several months later in January 1967, the police arrested nearly 100 people on charges of loitering and “being hippies” after the Human Be-In. Rohan brought the case to trial and won, getting all other charges dismissed. Rohan also co-formed the Haight-Ashbury Legal Organization that same summer and often set up a table in front of the band’s house where he offered service to live-in and walk-in clients alike who needed help. A story has it also that Rohan punched David Geffen for having his phone calls for clients ignored, earning the applause of “Jann Wenner, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, and Leonard Cohen".

Aphex Twin has partnered with British start-up ODDSound to develop MTS-ESP, a software plugin that allows for the use of nonstandard tunings. Most Western music is created using the 12 Tones of Equal Temperament (12 TET). However, other cultures have used various tunings for millennia, such as the microtones in Arabic maqam, the complex tuning systems of the Indonesian gamelan, or perhaps most famously, the micro-intervals in Indian ragas. MTS-ESP allows users to import, edit existing tuning files, or define tuning systems using its built-in algorithms, Pitchfork reports.

“Humour, optimism and positivity” are the main ideas behind Hell Bent for Metal, a new podcast about heavy metal from a gay perspective. HBFM founder and co-host Tom Dare’s hope was to be visible to other LGBTQ+ lovers of heavy music, and to offer a queer perspective that he felt was missing from a scene that is still affected by homophobia, as the Guardian reports. Titles to some of the episodes describe the content as well as the spirit of the podcast: 'Gay Satanic Love Songs', 'BDSM Gear and Black Metal', 'Horny German Werewolves', 'Anaal Nathrakh’s Adaam Ant Armograaphy', 'Between The Balls, The Wall And Me'...

Nike is suing Brooklyn art collective MSCHF over a pair of "Satan Shoes" that contain a drop of real human blood in the soles, feature an inverted cross, and a pentagram, the Verge reports. MSCHF released 666 pairs of shoes in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X who wears a pair in his latest video 'Montero (Call Me By Your Name)', where he hangs out with the devil. The trainers, which cost $1,018 a pair, sold out in less than a minute. Nike claims trademark infringement, and believes they’ve harmed its reputation since consumers might think "that Nike is endorsing satanism”. MSCHF is known for stunt products like its 2019 “Jesus Shoes”, a $1,425 pair of white Nike Air Max 97s with custom stitching and 60ccs of water from the River Jordan. Nike didn’t object to the Jesus Shoes. UPDATE: Nike's lawsuit succeeded in halting production.

Paying a minimum per diem of £75 / $120 to each songwriter working with your artist would be a sensible and structure-preserving measure. This per diem would be non-recoupable from the artist share - a group of over 300 songwriters wrote in an open letter to record labels to guarantee them and their peers a per diem payment for collaborating with artists. The reason? Songwriters' work in sessions isn't guaranteed to actually see the light of day, let alone become a hit. Songwriters who've signed up for the Pay Songwriters campaign include Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Stargate, Savan Kotecha, and dozens of others.

Streaming had the biggest impact on recorded music revenue growth last year - 62% came from streaming. Trapital emphasizes three few less discussed but interesting findings from IFPI reports. Vinyl sales grew 23.5% last year - vinyl are collectibles. It's a callback to a time when fans valued owning art. Synchronization - the use of music in media like games, TV, film, ads, podcasts, etc. - declined 9.4%, but that dip came from pandemic-related production delays. Now that vaccinations are up and production is back on, this will bounce back. South Korea's music revenue grew 44.8% last year. It's now the sixth-largest music market (behind the US, Japan, UK, Germany, and France). It's driven by K-Pop, which is driven by the world's biggest musical act of 2020, BTS.

Korean boyband BTS have expressed "grief and anger" in response to deadly mass shootings in Asian-owned spas in Atlanta, Insider reports. A statement from the band - published in Korean and English - refers to discriminatory experiences that made them feel "powerless". The recent spike in the deliberate targeting of Asian parts of the US population is thought to come from people blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic.

Pioneering music producer and engineer Malcolm Cecil has died at the age of 84, Consequence of Sound reports. Cecil produced plenty of big releases in his time, including numerous Stevie Wonder albums, still, he is best known as the co-creator of the TONTO — the world's largest analog synthesizer. Over the years, the TONTO has been used by the likes of the Isley Brothers, the Doobie Brothers, Joan Baez, Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, Weather Report, Gil Scott-Heron, Diana Ross and many others. TONTO was obtained by Calgary's National Music Centre in 2013, it was fully restored by 2018 and is available for contemporary artists to use.

Xiu Xiu share a new video for smooth 'Sad Mezcalita', featuring Sharon Van Etten; The Joy Formidable share a power-pop 'Into the Blue'; Gojira go tribal on 'Amazonia'; Jesse Malin shares a raaawk'n'raaawl 'The Way We Used To Roll'; Dallas rapper Bobby Sessions delivers some strong verses on 'Cog in the Machine'.

John Mayer posted a snippet of his new song to TikTok, and young British singer/songwriter and Mayer-lover Mary Spender couldn't wait so she composed the rest of the song. It took her three days to come up with the rest of the song, to record and mix it. She even made a video of the whole process and her version of the song.

Belarus has been disqualified from the Eurovision Song Contest after its entry failed to comply with the non-political nature of the competition, CMU reports. Galasy ZMesta's first song 'Ja nauchu tebja' ('I will teach you') was rejected due to complaints that the lyrics mocked the mass protest movement against long-time Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. The new song entry by the same band has also been disqualified by the EBU.

"We love antiheroes and complicated figures, and can acknowledge the ways in which the system preys on young Black men, but as long as we pretend that their upbringing completely stifles their agency, we allow them to avoid accountability for their actions [like Kodak Black and YoundBoy Never Broke Again]. To be 'complicated' is a patriarchal privilege. When Cardi B or Azealia Banks admit their past misdeeds or act out on social media, they aren’t contextualized; they’re policed" - Complex writes in an excellent essay.

Mozart expert Timothy Jones, who teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London, has released an album of his completions of several fragments for violin and keyboard that Mozart never finished, the New York Times reports. Posthumous completions are not unheard of in the classical world. This new Mozart-Jones recording is unusual, though, in its choose-your-own-adventure approach. Jones, testing different aspects of Mozartian style, made multiple completions of each fragment, and the album includes some of that variety, leaving the listener to choose the version they like the most.

Billy Childish has released over 130 albums under various guises including The Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, The Buff Medways, CTMF, and last year he’s suddenly started releasing albums - he’s delivered five LPs over the last four months with a new group, The William Loveday Intention. All these are surprisingly influenced by Bob Dylan - "it’s the lizards’ fault because I ended up stuck on a YouTube loop of all his songs and films", as he's told to The New Cue. Why so many albums in such a short time: "I had this silly idea where I thought it would be good to do a career in a year. Ten albums in a year".

Pete Davidson, Chris Redd and musical guest Jack Harlow delivered an Eminem-inspired rap about NFT on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live. Rapping on Eminem’s 'Without Me' video Davidson acts as a superhero, he is then joined by Redd’s Morpheus from The Matrix, and Harlow as a janitor.

Justin Bieber's newest release 'Justice' debuts on top of Billboard 200 chart with 154,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending March 25, Billboard reports. It's his eighth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart - all 10 of Bieber’s charting albums have reached the top 10, and he’s only missed the top slot twice. Bieber this week also stops the chart-topping domination of Morgan Wallen’s 'Dangerous: The Double Album', which spent 10 consecutive weeks in a row (it's at No. 3 this week). Lana Del Rey’s 'Chemtrails Over the Country Club' debuts at No. 2 with 75,000 equivalent album units earned.

Five thousand people attended a concert in Barcelona on Saturday night (March 27) as part of a COVID-19 experiment looking at the possibility of holding live music events with no social distancing if rapid testing is employed, al Jazeera reports. All attendees at the gig were tested ahead of the gig and the antigen test results were reported back to the attendees within 10 to 15 minutes via an app on their phones. The ticket price of $23 came with a rapid test and mask included. The show, which saw Spanish rock band Love of Lesbian playing at the Palau Sant Jordi arena, is said to be the biggest concert in Europe since the pandemic began last year.

"Women have been written out of history for centuries, their contributions to culture diminished, dismissed, or viewed solely in relation to the men in their lives. But through her entertaining, affectionate and righteous book, Thorn invites us to witness her friend in all her gobby glory" - Guardian writes in the review of 'My Rock'n'Roll Friend' by Tracey Thorn on Everything But The Girl, and her relationship with Lindy Morrison of the Go-Betweens. The G adds that "the author brings wit, candour and vividness to her storytelling... as well as providing a portrait of a mercurial and brilliant musician, the book exposes the sexism and hypocrisy of an industry, and attempts to right a terrible wrong".

BBC is showing a new documentary 'Black Power: A British Story of Resistance' about the UK's Black Power movement in the late 1960s which aimed to bring a revolution to the status of black people in the UK. It features interviews with past activists, some of which have told about the music that epitomises their journey.