Beyoncé was robbed two times in the last month - three separate storage units holding expensive bags and clothing were hit once, and then within a week burglars came back to the same facility, making off with handbags, kids toys, and photos belonging to one of Beyoncé’s stylists, TMZ reports. Stolen goods are estimated to value $1 million.

Ja Rule sold a non-fungible token, or NFT, of a painting of the ill-fated Fyre Festival logo for $122,000. The rapper told Forbes (via Complex) that he decided to sell the oil painting of the doomed festival's logo - which had been hanging in the festival's New York office while it was being planned - because he "just wanted that energy out". The artwork was accompanied by a handwritten note from Ja Rule which read "F**k this painting".

Dubliner David Balfe shared an artistic punk band with a best friend who killed himself, and now says his farewell with a project For Those I Love. Alexis Petridis chose it for his Album of the Week describing it as "bedroom dance music and spoken-word vocals" and "eerie post-dubstep". NME gives it perfect 5 stars arguing it's "a testament to the power of catharsis", whereas Independent hears "a staggering album". 'For Those I Love', however, goes beyond Balfe's story of love, as the Line of Best Fit points out - "his creation of such an overt sense of nostalgia, grief, loss and mourning, whilst also making time to make statements on social justice issues is impressive".

'Promises' is a collaborative project by producer Floating Points, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra, but the one holding it together is - "Sanders, his warm tone and fluid technique undiminished even at 80 years old, listening to his surroundings and finding brilliant patterns to stitch the work together and thus elevate it", as Pitchfork hears it (tagged it Best new music also). The New York Times appreciates the unity of it: "When [Sanders] plays his final notes of the album... he does not so much disappear as become one with Shepherd’s web of humming synthesizers".

90 percent of women in music had experienced "unconscious bias", 63 percent felt excluded from songwriting and production gigs - the new Be the Change report, which included 401 female artists, songwriters, producers and DJs, shows. A huge 82 percent of women said they had experienced harassment themselves, with 27 percent saying it happens frequently.

Critics really like the new Tina Turner documentary by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, a "must see", because, as The List says - "whether you're a fan or not, it's hard not to get swept up in the sheer strength of her story". Vulture sees the broader picture: "Frames itself as the final word on this music legend, strongly implying in its closing moments that this two-hour movie is essentially Turner’s farewell to the wider world".

The New Cue very highly recommends a mix by Heavenly Records supremo Jeff Barrett on his Mixcloud. The one you can listen to here "is an absolute cracker, filled with gems from around the globe, particularly Africa".

Vijay Iyer Trio share some groovy piano virtuosity with 'UnEasy'; Paul McCartney seems much younger in a Beck remix of 'Find My Way' - the younger musician got the idea for the mix remembering seeing McCartney dance; supergroup Satanic Planet (featuring members of Slayer, Locust and Planet B) share their first song - a, obviously, satanic industrial electro 'Baphomet'; Mysie shares an R'n'B velvet 'Keep Up With Your Heart'; Luminous Kid shares an emotional same-sex song 'Mountain Crystals’ featuring spoken word by Phoebe Bridgers; U.N.K.L.E. just go dancing on 'If We Don't Make It'.

“I grew up listening to Edith Piaf, Barbara, Jacques Brel, Lara Fabian, Patricia Kaas. The pared-down French classicism of their songs was what I always wanted my own music to be about” - 26-year-old Parisian singer Yseult tells the Guardian about her musical background. And about her intentions: “I want all the previously invisible minorities in France to become visible in the cultural landscape. Not for the sake of representation, but for what we can bring to the table. We want to be present in culture because we are present in society. We want to have our contributions credited.”

Movie director Andrew Dominik is making a new documentary about Nick Cave and Warren Ellis "attempting to play 'Carnage' and 'Ghosteen' live", Cave has announced in his Red Hand Files blog. Cave also describes how he and Ellis recorded 'Carnage' while not really trying to make a record - "I had been sitting at my desk — suddenly and shockingly not travelling — writing lyrics and poems into a void, with no real objective other than to make sense of this stationary moment. The world felt weird. My body felt weird. I had been jet-lagged for forty-five years. Now my inner clock had begun to tick regularly. Some nights I even slept. I think Warren’s experience was not dissimilar. I think we both felt the enforced stasis, not just unnerving, but also strangely and fitfully energizing, and so, when we began working in the studio, Carnage came out fast and necessary, as proof of life".

UK artists are already turning down shows and tours in parts of Europe for later this year and early next, as they have become unviable due to increased cost and bureaucracy - CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition David Martin told NME about post-Brexit tours of British acts in the EU. John Robb of Goldblade and The Membranes says now it's "just chaos in a vacuum. If we knew what we were working with then we could either pay, work a way round it or just choose not to go. At the moment, we have no idea what the options will be”. Things might be moving in the right direction, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament that music "is a massively important part of the economy" adding "we must fix it", the "it" being current system of touring rules, NME reports.

Catalytic Sound, a cooperative organization comprising 30 avant-garde instrumentalists and composers, launched their own streaming platform Catalytic Soundstream. It charges listeners $10 per month for between 100 and 150 albums available at any given time and new ones swapped in and out every day, including records by out-jazz and free improv luminaries live Joe McPhee, Tomeka Reid, Tashi Dorji, Ikue Mori, claire rousay, Chris Corsano, and Luke Stewart. The majority of the albums include a note from one of the partners, Pitchfork reports.

Recreational marijuana will be legalised in New York state, after officials finalised a deal to permit casual usage and possession of the drug, the New York Times reports. The deal will “allow delivery of the drug and permit club-like lounges or ‘consumption sites’ where marijuana, but not alcohol, could be consumed”. Individuals will also be permitted to legally grow up to six marijuana plants at home for personal use.

Queen have officially moved 10 million units in streaming and track sales of their anthem 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the US, making them the first UK band to be RIAA-certified diamond, Blabbermouth reports. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' also recently became the most-streamed song from the 20th century, surpassing a collective 1.6 billion streams globally across all major streaming services.

Now Orleans pianist and composer Jon Batiste, also the musical host of 'Late Show with Stephen Colbert', describes how he made his empowering song 'We Are' at the latest episode of Song Exploder. Batiste talks about "how he drew from his roots, at a very personal level — and at a cultural, historical level — and wove all of it into the song".

Demi Lovato had a wellness coach, dietician, nutritionist and therapist to keep her thin, Taylor Swift starved herself and excessively exercised to keep her body shape, Elton John suffered from bulimia, Zayn went for days without eating while feeling a lack of control over his life during his time in One Direction. In general, as Guardian reports, 32% musicians had experienced an eating disorder in their lifetime, while it affects 1.9% to 5.1% of the British population. Pop and R&B singer JoJo goes to the root of the problem - "the music industry is very unpredictable, so I think when you are able to control some aspect of your life – the way you eat, the way you look – then you feel you’re more in control”. Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow echoes this sentiment - “When I can control the outcome of a situation, I feel good. And when I can’t, I feel terrible, and that manifests itself in how I see myself in the mirror”.

Label and publisher BMG and investment firm KKR announced a partnership to fund acquisitions of major recorded music and publishing catalogs, establishing yet another player in the gold rush for music’s biggest song collections, Music Business Worldwide reports. KKR currently manages global assets with a combined worth over $230 billion. KKR partner Nat Zilkha tells Rolling Stone the companies are prepared to spend into the billions.

Britney Spears’ attorney Samuel D Ingham III has requested that her father, Jamie Spears, be permanently removed from overseeing her personal affairs, according to Variety. Attorney asked that the singer’s temporary care manager, Jodi Montgomery, be permanently installed as her sole conservator. At the same time Spears’ petition notes that she “expressly reserves the right to petition for termination of this conservatorship”.

World's second largest concert promoter has begun bringing back part-time and full-time employees who had been furloughed or saw their hours reduced during the pandemic with the first phase of employees returning April 1, Billboard reports. The second phase of AEG's rehiring involves full time employees who were moved to part time status. Those employees will be returned to full time status starting April 1 with the process expected to be completed by June 1. The third and final tier involves employees that were furloughed during the pandemic and are now expected to return to work full-time in the fall. AEG's main competitor Live Nation plans to begin staffing up as capacity restrictions are lifted on venues owned or leased by the company.

75% of Britons have turned to a musical instrument during lockdown, a research from Yamaha has revealed. Other research found UK sales of instruments and music equipment have risen by 80% during lockdown. Guardian talked to dozens of new musicians, with 67-year-old retired infant teacher Liz saying - “I had never had the slightest desire to play an instrument before but it is magical. I prop up my iPad, secured with a bit of Blu-Tack, so my teacher can see and hear me, and it is a glorious experience. I would never have done this without the lockdown”.

The European independent music companies’ association proposed a 10-point plan to reform the streaming economy. IMPALA has some good ideas: higher payouts for longer songs; higher payouts for tracks that users specifically search for (as opposed to encountering them via playlists or radio); assuring there will be no features that recreate elements of payola; boost local repertoire and languages.

John Grant shares Cate Le Bon-produced atmospheric Americana 'Boy From Michigan'; Svalbard vocalist Serena Cherry shares a dark metal song 'Labyrinthian' from her Noctule project; just some classic hip-hop - a new video of 'Nutshell Pt. 2' by the late A Tribe Called Quest MC Phife Dawg, featuring Busta Rhymes and Redman, produced by J Dilla; members of Vex, Obsequiae, Panopticon, and Horrendous form black-death project Aduanten, share 'The Drowning Tide'.

The experimental UK rock band Black Midi has announced its second album 'Cavalcade' with a music video for the lead single, 'John L'. The peculiar video was directed by choreographer and creative director Nina McNeely, whose previous projects include Rihanna’s 'Sledgehammer' visual and Gaspar Noé’s 'Climax'. According to Pitchfork, half of the album was written by individual members of the band at home before they brought it to one another during rehearsals. Also, guitarist/founding member Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin stepped away from the group to tend to his mental health, and was substituted by saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi and keyboardist Seth Evans. Black Midi also released another new song 'Despair', the b-side to 'John L'; it won't be a part of the new album.

This year's documentries 'Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil', 'The World’s a Little Blurry' (about Billie Eilish), 'Framing Britney Spears', and 'Alone Together' (Charlie XCX project) are a part of "a larger reconsideration of how female stars are discussed, hounded, anointed and denigrated – and thus how we judge and value women in public, how we consider ourselves", Guardian writes comparing the four. "As Lovato’s story attests, the appearance of power under the impossible binds of marketable public womanhood, especially for young women – be sexy but sexless, confident but not threatening, empowered but desirable – is a ruse" the G's writer concludes.

Taylor Swift and her mom Andrea donated $50,000 to Vickie Quarles, the mother of five daughters whose husband, Theodis Ray Quarles, died of COVID-19, according to Yahoo News. Their donation through GoFundMe fundraiser raised the total amount to over $62,000. Previously, in December, the singer donated $13,000 to two mothers who were struggling to pay their bills during the pandemic. In March of last year, Swift sent checks to her longtime fans who had lost their jobs during the ongoing crisis. She also donated money to Nashville record store Grimey's New and Preloved Music to pay and provide healthcare for each of the retailer's employees for three months.

Today is the launch date of Here In The Room, an interactive digital portrait by Nile Rodgers. The superstar hitmaker was answering 350 questions for two days, in realtime, about working with David Bowie, Madonna, and Lady Gaga, about why he chose to play in bands rather than pursue a solo career, about a kind of breakfast he eats, etc. A taste of the experience is available In the Room for free, while an online pass to access the full content costs £20, Guardian reports. This project is an extension of the National Holocaust Centre and Museum to make survivors’ testimonies interactive and lasting, and it is now branching out into the arts.

"Covid has definitely humbled me. You realise nothing is set in stone... I’ve learned to never push anything back in life. Do it while you have the chance" - Darkoo, British-Nigerian vocalist, tells the Guardian about his lockdown experience. Oli James, tour manager for singer-songwriter Sam Fender, who took a job on a fishing trawler, says "it’s been great seeing more of the family and I’ve enjoyed woodland walks to keep my brain active". Jack Cochrane of the Snuts describes how they got through thanks to being close - "we’ve been friends since we were kids – three of the band met in nursery – and have played together since we were 12 or 13, which helps you pull together. It was just another thing to go through as a group of friends".

Billboard believes cassettes are gonna have a revival, similar to the vinyl. In 2018, only 219,000 cassette albums were sold, while in 2020, on Discogs alone, cassette album sales were up a third, totaling 282,798. Big French cassette manufacturer RecordingTheMasters in 2019 was manufacturing around 9,000 cassette tapes a month. Now, they are at 30,000 a month. Apart from being cheaper and more practical, cassettes are produced at half the time it takes for vinyl.

South Korean companies are using artificial intelligence to make new music by dead pop stars, Korean or global. AI is being used to learn and then extrapolate the style of certain musicians, like Kim Kwang Seok, who died 25 years ago, and Freddie Mercury who is dead for 30 years now. It is part of the Korean government's push to harness the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, using technology to transform the way we live and work.

280 upcoming bands - including Indigo Sparke, Shannen James, Chubby and the Gang, and Black Country, New Road - performed last week at the online edition of South by Southwest. The bands performed from their living rooms and backyards. Paste Magazine was at the (web)site to witness a "smooth, yet strange virtual event that, by streamlining the festival experience, necessarily sapped it of all the chaotic energy and excitement that makes live music (let alone festivals) so irreplaceable". The New York Times says SXSW "came back with a genuine joy".