business
Jam Bands Lead a Concerts Revival, Aided By Livestream Boom
Jam bands have quietly become the surprise earners of the pandemic thanks to devoted fans and compelling livestreams, and are now poised to dominate touring as live concerts return. Unlike most pop and contemporary touring shows, jam and improvisation-heavy bands are constantly changing their sets and musical arrangements so that no two shows are the same, attracting fans willing to pay to see the same band play multiple sets of different material. Ticket sales for these kinds of acts have been exceptionally strong, says Don Strasburg, vp/senior talent buyer for AEG Live Rocky Mountains, though he’s hesitant to use the “jam” label, considering the genre’s diversity of styles from bluegrass to funk. Such acts that value “spontaneity and improvisation,” says Strasburg, “were already the larg...
Scooter Braun Hit With Fraud Lawsuit Over Scuttled Private Equity Fund
But in April 2018, according to Comisar, Braun repudiated financial commitments and stopped funding everything including Comisar’s salary. “Bolno, completely unrepentant, explained to Comisar that Braun never really believed he would have to perform and, brazenly, told him that ‘people in the entertainment industry do not honor their contractual agreements,'” states the complaint. “Bolno made clear that he and Braun believed that Braun was free to renege on his commitments with impunity and without consequences and would wreak havoc upon Comisar if he chose to pursue Braun on his commitments.” Comisar says he was threatened with a smear campaign that included falsely being fired from Goldman Sachs, dereliction of duties by devoting time to advisory servi...
Yo Gotti’s CMG Label Teams with Interscope Geffen A&M on Artist Development
“With 25 years under his belt as a successful artist, label head, manager and entrepreneur, Yo Gotti has built an impressive legacy in hip hop and remains one of the most exciting voices in music,” said IGA chairman John Janick in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with Gotti’s team to continue to build upon CMG’s incredible run in our business.” “I have a tremendous amount of respect for John Janick, Steve Berman, Nicole Wyskoarko and the entire Interscope team and their track record of success,” added Gotti. “We share the same vision about winning – we want to break barriers, disrupt the industry and develop the next generation of superstars. I’m thrilled to partner with them as I continue focusing on CMG’s expansion.” Founded in 2012, CMG has also worked to develop the car...
Assessing the Music Industry’s Progress 1 Year After Blackout Tuesday: ‘We Need to Build a Bigger Table’
#TheShowMustBePaused and other principals working to achieve sustainable diversity, equity and inclusion assess the industry’s progress so far. A year ago Wednesday (June 2), Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas brought the music industry to a standstill. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the global protests it spurred, the pair called for a day of racial reckoning — dubbed Blackout Tuesday by supporters — and simultaneously launched #TheShowMustBePaused to hold the industry accountable for its own systemic bias. “Our mission,” stated Agyemang and Thomas at the time, “is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of Black people, accountable … it is the obligation of these entities to protect and e...
The Players Behind BTS’ ‘Butter’: See the Full Credits
Artists:Main Artist – BTS Songwriters:Composer Lyricist – Alex BilowitzComposer Lyricist – Jenna AndrewsComposer Lyricist – RMComposer Lyricist – Rob GrimaldiComposer Lyricist – Ron PerryComposer Lyricist – Sebastian GarciaComposer Lyricist – Stephen KirkVocal Arranger – Jenna AndrewsVocal Arranger – Rob GrimaldiVocal Arranger – Stephen Kirk Producers:Producer – Rob GrimaldiProducer – Ron PerryProducer – Stephen Kirk Engineers:Engineer – Juan “Saucy” PenaEngineer – Keith ParryMastering Engineer – Chris GehringerMixer – Serban Ghenea Labels:Distributor – The Orchard EnterprisesLabel – BIGHIT MUSIC/HYBE Explore the full “Butter” credits on Jaxsta her...
Splendour in the Grass 2021 Sets Virtual Event Featuring Khalid, CHVRCHES, The Killers & More
Australia’s popular mid-winter festival Splendour in the Grass will go digital next month, with a two-day virtual event featuring performances from Khalid, CHVRCHES, The Killers, Charlie XCX and many more. Also confirmed to the Splendour XR lineup are Denzel Curry, Phoebe Bridgers, Vance Joy, Little Simz, The Avalanches, Duke Dumont, Of Monsters and Men, Masked Wolf, Tash Sultana and Russ Millions, while Grimes will unleash her new project, Meteverse (Super Beta). “We could not be more excited about Splendour XR and the opportunity to take the Splendour goodness online to our existing community and also to new audiences around the globe,” comments SITG co-producers Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined ...
40 Music Stars Who Are Overdue for Kennedy Center Honors
Because the Kennedy Center Honors were slow to embrace popular music forms, and because they also honor non-music performers, they are terribly backlogged in their music honors. The 43rd annual Kennedy Center Honors broadcast is set to air on Sunday, nearly six months later than usual — the delay due, of course, to the COVID-19 pandemic. Garth Brooks, Joan Baez, violinist Midori, Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Allen are this year’s honorees. Gloria Estefan, who received the honor in 2017, is hosting for the second time. The Kennedy Center Honors are highly competitive because they cover all aspects of arts and entertainment – not just music. When the awards program originated in 1978, the focus in its music selections was on classical, opera, jazz and traditional pop. The Honors slowly cam...
Atlantic Records Exec VP Juliette Jones Leaving Label
Jones joined the label in 2012 after moving from Warner Bros. Records to Atlantic as senior vp urban promotion; she was upped to executive vp the following year. During her tenure, she was the dynamo behind radio hits for Cardi B, Bruno Mars, Gucci Mane, Kodak Black and Lil Uzi Vert, among others, making a name herself as one of the rare upper-level female promotion executives — let alone a woman of color — to work at a major label. Prior to joining Warner, Jones served in roles at Virgin, J/RCA and Jive Records, where she was hired as the label’s first mid-Atlantic regional promotion director for urban music in 1994. You can read Jones’ full memo below. In alignment with my personal goals, I’ve decided that now is the time for me to move forward into the next exciting chapter ...
Moodagent Arrives In Australia as Global Rollout Ramps-Up
He’s joined at the Sydney office by director of music and editorial Toni Pipicelli and regional marketing director Bushra Abel. The mood-based listening platform will come online in NZ “shortly,” reads a statement. Moodagent confidently claims a personal and interactive user experience, based on its back-end blend of machine learning, audio analysis and “tens of thousands of hours” of human musicology. The service’s interactive playlists, or “moodagents,” are activated by mood sliders for Sensual, Tender, Happy, Angry and Tempo. Feel angry? The listener can let that out, and the playlists stay in your lane. The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play, with its premium tier priced at A$11.99 ($9.30) per month. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Moodagent was ...
Forever No. 1: B.J. Thomas’ ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’
“When the film was released, I was highly critical — how did the song fit with the film? There was no rain,” Redford told USA Today in 2019, a half-century later. “At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was.” “Raindrops…” was hardly the most sophisticated song that Burt Bacharach and Hal David — the duo who’d penned many of the most pristine and affecting pop songs of the late ’50s and ’60s, including most of Dionne Warwick’s signature smashes — ever wrote. But it may have been their most universal, a song that everybody who has ever had a bad day or a rough patch could relate to. David’s lyric has a dash of whimsical humor (“So, I just did me some talkin’ to the sun/ And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done...
Ruido Fest Organizer on Returning After a Year Away: ‘I Never Had Any Doubt That We’d Come Back’
The summer festival scene seems to be more optimistic than last year. Prior to Ruido Fest, Chicago’s Lollapalooza will also make its return in full capacity from July 29-Aug. 1 at Grant Park. It will mark one of the first major North American festivals to occur since the pandemic began in March 2020. While those attending Lollapalooza will have to produce full COVID-19 vaccination or negative COVID-19 test results, for now, Ruido Fest producers say they will follow city, state and CDC guidelines but will not require proof of vaccination for entrance. “In terms of requiring people to do things, it’s tough in a society that praises freedom to enact things on people,” says Max Wagner, co-founder of Ruido Fest and owner of event productio...
IPOB sit-at-home: Black marketers sell petrol at N300 per liter in Ebonyi
Black marketers on major streets of Abakaliki cashed in on the sit-at-home order by the Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Monday to make brisk business. They sold the premium motor spirit, otherwise called petrol, for between N200 and N350 per litre, following the closure of fuel outlets in the city due to the IPOB order. In separate interviews with newsmen, a cross-section of the hawkers expressed happiness over the development. Chidi Onu, who said he “made good business”, frowned at the restriction on business activities by IPOB. “Well, it is not my fault that these things are happening. It is high time we sat on a roundtable as citizens to discuss many issues affecting us as a nation. “Yes, the IPOB order has favoured me. I only came out to sell and have something for my ...
