The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers organized protests outside Spotify’s offices in 31 cities in the US and Canada, South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia on Monday, Clash Magazine reports. The peaceful demonstrations were meant to draw attention to the “Justice at Spotify” list of demands, which includes paying artists one cent per stream (Spotify currently pays some artists as little as $0.0038 per stream, which is among the lowest rates of any platform), plus transparent contracts, a more user-centric payment model, an end to payola, a switch to crediting all labor in recordings, and an end to legal battles against artists which serve to “further impoverish artists”.

More than 100 Italian artists staged a silent protest L'Ultimo Concerto last Saturday to raise awareness for the struggling live music industry. Italian musicians came to the venues and prepared everything just like for a normal show - with their instruments and sound-checks and all - and then just stood still in silence.

Italian metal band Lacuna Coil joined a wide array of Italian acts in showing support to local venus - by standing silent, Loudwire reports. The group announced "L'Ultimo Concerto" at the Alcatraz-Milano stage, and while some fans may have expected a performance, Lacuna Coil have just stood still. It was a form of protest as part of an initiative pointing out the importance of these essential clubs for developing artists and contributing to the country's art and economy.

Chineke! Orchestra has created a composition inspired by the encouraging moment from the London Black Lives Matter protests in June when anti-racism protester Patrick Hutchinson carried to safety an injured counter-protester, BBC reports. The piece, composed by James B. Wilson and including powerful poetry by Yomi Sode, is performed by Chineke! Orchestra, the first professional orchestra in Europe to be made up of majority black, Asian and ethnically diverse musicians.

Tyrese returns with his most powerful record to date, and his first song in over 5 years - 'Legendary', featuring CeeLo Green. The song depicts an “artist's response" to the unfair deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police officers. It is paired with an equally powerful visual directed by Deon Taylor, who’s seen and been through the worst of the worst coming up in Gary, Indiana. Tyrese strayed from his signature R&B ballads, and got into hip-hop/soul territory, with CeeLo Green adding his signature voice and gospel undertones.

There is one song that keeps being heard in the crowds at the protests in Belarus - 'Khochu Peremen' ('Want to Change') by the 1980s USSR rock band Kino (Cinema). Previously, it was sung in Moscow by protestors opposing Vladimir Putin in 2011, although its author Viktor Tsoi had no intention for it to become a political anthem, or for him to be a revolutionary figure, according to the BBC. He said it was a song about inner change.

Rage Against the Machine music was streamed over 11 million times in the last week, a 62% increase, caused by the renewed interest for their music amid the protests in the U.S., Billboard reports. The band’s 1992 single 'Killing in the Name' accounts for 2.4 million of those streams alone, which places the song at No. 3 on Hard Rock Digital Songs Chart and No. 21 on the Hard Rock Streaming Songs Chart. 'Bulls on Parade', meanwhile, has been streamed 1.4 million times in the last week. The band’s catalog, which features four studio albums released between 1992 and 2000, earned 11,000 equivalent album units in the June 5-11 tracking week, a boost of 24%.

A 12-year-old black boy Keedron Bryant whose song 'I Just Wanna Live' about the fears of being a young African American went viral has been signed by Warner Records, Complex reports. The young gospel singer's original Instagram post has attracted over 3m likes and has drawn praise from former President Barack Obama, basketball legend LeBron James, singer Janet Jackson and actress Lupita Nyong'o. Warner Records timed the release to coincide with Juneteenth, which marks the end of centuries of US slavery. The soulful track was written by Keedron's mother Johnnetta Bryant, it is sung a cappella by him, and it includes the lyrics: "I'm a young black man, doing all that I can to stand. Oh, but when I look around, and I see what's being done to my kind".

LRAD can be used to generate extremely loud high-frequency sounds specifically intended for the dispersal of crowds, which can also cause pain, disorientation, and injury to those exposed to them, Pitchfork explains and advises how to defend yourself from it. Use earplugs or safety ear muffs with the highest dB-reduction rating you can find; look for places to shelter - sound waves deflect off dense and rigid surfaces, so brick and concrete walls are a good bet; in case of no earplugs and shelter, go left or right if the LRAD is in front of you, rather than just backing up - the sound is a beam and walking perpendicularly to the direction of that beam helps.

Pitchfork has gathered videos that show the many ways that music is being used in protests against police brutality and racism across the USA and around the world; watch here. In similar news, NPR made a partial record of music released in the past week answering this historic moment.

A Chilean protest song 'Un Violador en Tu Camino' ('A Rapist in Your Path') about rape culture and victim shaming has become a viral anthem for feminists around the world. The song was first performed in late November as Chile’s nationwide uprising against social inequality pushed into its second month. Videos of the song – […]

Around 2,000 festival-goers have joined climate change campaigners Extinction Rebellion in a procession across the Glastonbury festival site, paying tribute to indigenous people who have led the fight against global heating. Dr Gail Bradbrook from ER said it is "not a protest. It is not a campaign. It is a rebellion. We are in active […]