Let’s start with: Correlation is not causation. (Listen to your imploring math teachers, kids; the ramifications of shoddy data science are no joke.) And yet, when the most popular band in the world releases a song primly named after a pantry staple, one has to wonder — by which I …
Read More »Star Songwriter Ali Tamposi Sells Catalog to New Female-Focused Music Fund
Less than a month after announcing a $100 million fund to acquire catalogs from female music makers, Influence Media has made its first purchase. It has struck a deal with prominent songwriter Ali Tamposi for her publishing rights, the company tells Rolling Stone. Tamposi has co-written an extensive catalog of …
Read More »Dozens of Artists Are Taking Reservations for Their First Post-Covid Shows
As the live music industry’s return remains fairly nebulous amid the ongoing pandemic, Mint Talent Group — a booking agency started last year by former CAA, William Morris Endeavor, and Paradigm agents — is working with ticketing platform Lyte to set up a reservation system for a swath of its …
Read More »Big Hit and Universal Music Will Launch a New Boy Band Together
Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest music company, and Big Hit Entertainment, the Korean record label behind international superstars BTS, are partnering in a new label joint venture to develop a new boy group, the two companies announced in a pretaped livestream on Wednesday. The new venture, based in …
Read More »Live Nation, AEG Spearhead New Live Music Relief Coalition
As the live music industry enters its seven month of virtually zero revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic, a new coalition comprised of some of the biggest live music groups and corporations in the industry launched on Thursday. The #SaveLiveEventsNow coalition — made up of promotion giants Live Nation Entertainment …
Read More »Cypress Hill's Newest Venture Is 'HotBox,' a Weed-Centric Card Game
When you think of West Coast hip-hop, a few things may come to mind — with Cypress Hill and marijuana high on the list. In Covid quarantine, weed dispensaries were deemed essential businesses by every state with a regulated cannabis system; Cypress Hill, despite not having released any new music …
Read More »Taylor Swift Made an Album. Now She's Going to Sell Thousands of Cardigans
This sweater song doesn’t come undone. Of all the tracks of Taylor Swift‘s surprise album Folklore, the one sitting at Number One on the Spotify US Top 50 is “Cardigan” — a song where Swift likens herself to, you guessed it, a cardigan. In a music video accompanying the critically …
Read More »'Verzuz,' the Livestreaming Quarantine Darling, Partners With Apple Music
Months-old music livestreaming program Verzuz — a grassroots rap battle on social media that’s become one of the music industry’s most notable quarantine offerings — is partnering with Apple Music to bring upcoming episodes onto the platform, Apple Music announced on Monday. Starting with Wednesday’s upcoming face-off between Snoop Dogg …
Read More »What Is Lady A's Case Against the Other Lady A?
When country trio Lady Antebellum announced a name change in mid-June amid national conversations about racism, it was meant to be a gesture of goodwill. The band had been criticized for romanticizing the pre-war, slavery-ridden American South — so it chopped off the offending word and refashioned itself “Lady A.” …
Read More »The Company Behind BTS Is Pouring More Money Into K-Pop's Success
K-pop‘s world domination seems to get closer by the day. Just months after the folks at Big Hit Entertainment celebrated their star groupBTS‘ chart-topping success with album Map of the Soul: 7 —which became the South Korean icons’ fourth consecutive LP to go Number One in the U.S. — the …
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