business
Legendary Recording Engineer Al Schmitt Dies at 91
Born April 17, 1930 in Brooklyn, Schmitt served in the U.S. Navy and began apprenticing at Apex Recording Studios in New York City when he was 19. It was there he began working with legendary engineer/producer Tom Dowd, eventually engineering a session for Duke Ellington and His Orchestra on his own when no one else was around. “Duke Ellington sat next to me, and I was so nervous and it was obvious. I kept saying, ‘You know, Mr. Ellington, I’m really not qualified to do this. This was a huge mistake,'” Schmitt told Billboard in a special tribute to the engineer in 2012. “And he kept patting me on the leg and saying, `Don’t worry, son. We’re going to get through this.’ And that was it. I got thrown in, we got it done, we did four sides. The ni...
Women lament high cost of food items, consumables in Makurdi
Residents, particularly housewives in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, have lamented the increase in prices of food items. A survey conducted by NAN on Tuesday in Makurdi showed that prices of food items have been increasing on a daily basis. Many housewives interviewed by newsmen said that feeding their families has now become very difficult as the prices of essential food items have multiplied in the past few months. Mrs Rose Onazi, a housewife, said that the sharp rise in prices of various goods, especially food and household items, has made nonsense of the amount she receives as a monthly housekeeping allowance from her husband. Onazi said that many of the items she bought a week before had increased either by 50 per cent, 100 per cent or even more. She said that the development had s...
Tom Jones on Track For U.K. No. 1 With ‘Surrounded By Time’
Coming in at No. 2 on the Official Chart Update is John Lennon’s first solo album Plastic Ono Band (Parlophone), which reenters the survey off the back of a 50th anniversary release. The late former Beatles great saw his LP peak at No. 8 following its release in 1971. Another legendary British act is on track for a return to the Top 5 as The Who’s third studio LP The Who Sell Out (Polydor) blasts to No. 4, just one spot behind the current chart leader, London Grammar’s California Soil (Ministry of Sound), down 3-1. The Who Sell Out peaked at No. 13 back in 1968. Meanwhile, veteran alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. are chasing their first Top 10 album in almost thee decades with Sweep It Into Space (Jagjaguwar). It’s new at No. 9 on the chart blast, just ahead of indie pop group Scouting For G...
Lil Nas X, London Grammar Rule U.K.’s Charts
Meanwhile, London rapper AJ Tracey bows at No. 2 with Flu Game (Revenge Records), his sophomore album. It’s the U.K.’s most-streamed album of the chart cycle, according to the OCC, and it’s Tracey’s career high, narrowly beating the No. 3 peak of his 2019 self-titled debut. Veteran U.S. rock outfit The Offspring complete an all-new Top 3 with Let The Bad Times Roll (Concord), their first album in almost a decade. Let The Bad Times Roll starts at No. 3 to give The Offspring their highest-charting to date in the U.K., easily eclipsing the No. 10 peak of Americana from 1998. Also new to the weekly albums survey is Irish rock singer Imelda May, whose sixth LP 11 Past The Hour (Decca) opens at No. 6, while U.S. rockers Greta Van Fleet enter the survey at No. 8 with The Battle at Garden’s Gate (...
Kebbi: NSCDC sets up committee to investigate ‘extortion’
File Photo The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) says it has set up a five-man committee to investigate alleged N1 million extortion by its staff in Kebbi State. The State Commandant of the corps, Alhaji Suleman Ibrahim, made this known at a news conference in Birnin Kebbi on Monday. Ibrahim said, “I have read a report online that my officers have been alleged to have extorted money from a client. ”This has never been the tradition of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps in the state as one of our core values is serving with integrity, honesty and diligence. “I am not a party to such an incident and I am not aware of it, and I doubt if any of my officers will do such an illegal and unlawful act. ”But still, we will take any allegation serious to its logical conclusi...
PRS for Music Warns of Hard Times Ahead as Revenues Drop 20%
The collecting society, which represents more than 10 million musical works and has 155,000 members, says that a projected rise in online royalty income won’t be enough to offset the loss of public performance distributions, which PRS expects to fall by at least 10% in 2021. Much of the £699 million PRS distributed in 2020 — an increase of 2% over 2019 — came from royalties collected pre-pandemic, meaning the dramatic fall in income will be felt hardest by its members in 2021 and beyond, PRS for Music CEO Andrea Czapary Martin tells Billboard. “It has been a tough time and it will be a tough time again this year,” says Martin. “Our revenues will go up this year, but not back to the levels of 2019.” Globally, performance rights revenues fell by 10.1% to $2.3 billion in 2020 as a...
Spotify Begins Raising Prices With Family Plans in US, UK
Meanwhile, in the U.K., Student, Duo and Family Plan subscriptions will also see a price hike, up one pound apiece for Student and Duo plans to £5.99/month and £13.99/month, respectively, with Family Plan subscriptions rising £2 to £16.99/month. The raises were first reported by The Verge, which also reported that some other countries in Europe will see Student and Duo plans rise by one euro/month and Family Plans by three euros/month, with increases in Asia and South America as well. “With more than 70 million tracks and 2.2 million podcasts, Spotify continues to innovate and invest in providing our listeners with greater value than ever before, including the best audio content and user experience,” a spokesperson told Billboard in a statement. “We offer a variety of subs...
UK Primed to Resume Live Shows While Rest of Europe Struggles
While the United Kingdom appears poised to resume full-capacity outdoor shows this summer, many other European markets will be forced to wait until at least the fall. Greek doesn’t expect indoor shows to resume in continental Europe before the end of the year, but he does expect them in the United Kingdom by September. And with most U.S. artists choosing not to tour Europe due to a paucity of tour dates and the possibility of new virus restrictions, local U.K. and European acts will take center stage as headliners. Dieter Semmelman, CEO of Berlin-based Semmel Concerts, sees “no chance” of a return to live music events in Germany this summer and, instead, is focused on saving about 300 concerts scheduled for October through December. “It’s not a good feeling” that other markets are ahead of...
Zimbabwe street vendors reel under virus curbs
For years, Zimbabwean single mother Spiwe Tembo would sell buns on the streets of central Harare, earning enough to feed her three children. But her fortunes have dived. Since authorities banned street hawkers a year ago as part of a raft of measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, she plays cat-and-mouse with the police who comb the streets to rid them of vendors. “Things are tough,” the 34-year-old said, waving a packet of large buns to potential customers on a busy street in a part of Harare that locals call “Third World” because it is always teeming. She said: “We get arrested by municipal and national police. Almost daily I pay bribes to police officers to avoid getting arrested.” On the days she doesn’t have any cash, the inevitable happens and she is arrested and her wares seized. ...
H.E.R., Jon Batiste and All the Record-Setters From the 2021 Oscars
The Oscar win for H.E.R., D’Mile and Thomas comes just six weeks after they won a Grammy for song of the year for “I Can’t Breathe.” This is the first time in 35 years that a songwriter or songwriting team has won an Oscar in the same awards season that they won a Grammy for song of the year for a different song. Lionel Richie won both awards in 1986. He and Michael Jackson shared the Grammy for song of the year on Feb. 25, 1986 for “We Are The World.” On March 24 of that year, he won the Oscar for “Say You, Say Me” from White Nights. With the win for “Fight For You,” fellow nominee Diane Warren’s Oscar track record stands at 0-12. She is one of just seven people in Oscar history – across all categories – to amass as many as 12 nominations without a win. (Let’s hope nomination No. 13 will ...
FSG rejects £3 billion offer to sell Liverpool
Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group has rejected a £3bn offer from the Middle East to sell. The offer was made to FSG prior to the announcement on Sunday night that principal owner John W. Henry had been involved in talks to take Liverpool into the ill-fated European Super League, reports the Mirror. Following anger aimed at FSG in the wake of the failed Super League plot there are other potential bidders waiting in the wings to see if the stance of Henry and Liverpool chairman Tom Werner changes as a result of the enormous criticism they face. FSG took charge of Liverpool in 2010, buying the club for around £300m to end the reign of the deeply unpopular Tom Hicks and George Gillett at Anfield, the American duo having left the Reds on a financial cliff edge by the time their exit arrived....
PANDEF seeks South-south security outfit
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has paid a consultative visit to former President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja to discuss the current security situation of the country and South south matters particularly the need for a regional security arrangement for the South-South as being done by other zones in the country. The PANDEF delegation led by the National Chairman, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien, said they visited the former President because he was a key voice in the country, and the political leader of the Niger Delta Region, and that his vast knowledge and understanding of the complexities and intricacies of the country, and the region, would be of immense benefit to PANDEF, and other groups in the country in the efforts to resolving the challenges we are confronted with. The group in a s...
