International
Chvrches Leads Maisie Peters, Kanye West In U.K. Albums Chart Race
Close behind on the chart blast is Maisie Peters’ debut studio album You Signed Up For This (Gingerbread Man), new at No. 2. Meanwhile, Kanye West’s long-delayed Donda (Def Jam) album comes in at No. 3, a solid start despite its late release on Sunday (instead of the typical Friday drop), and the fact it’s not available in physical formats. According to the OCC, Donda is leading on both downloads and streaming, and if it can lift to the top spot when the chart is published this Friday (Sept. 3), it’ll mark West’s third U.K. No. 1 album. Closing out an all-new midweek Top 5 is Halsey’s fourth studio effort, If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power (EMI), and Becky Hill’s debut Only Honest On The Weekend (Polydor), respectively. Just 2,000 chart sales currently separate the Top 5, the OCC rep...
Sandaime J SOUL BROTHERS Set to Drop New Single ‘JSB IN BLACK’: See the Teaser
The single will also include “KICK & SLIDE,” the theme of the LDH children’s anime by the same name currently airing on the popular TV Tokyo kids’ show Ohasuta. The fan club version of the single will include live footage of four songs from the group’s ongoing concert tour — Sandaime J SOUL BROTHERS LIVE TOUR 2021 “THIS IS JSB” — which will be the most recent concert performances by the group to be made available on video. Watch a “JSB IN BLACK” teaser below: You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair...
Japan’s Fujipacific Chairman Ichiro Asatsuma Talks 55-Year Career, Future of J-Pop & More
What have you placed the most importance on during these past 50 years? To be quick in finding good songs, whether they be Japanese or Western, and obtaining the rights to them. I originally used to work part-time as a music critic while working full-time at a company that had nothing to do with music. So when I got the job at my current company, I read M. William Krasilovsky’s This Business of Music [first published in 1964] and came away with a vague understanding that “OK, so the challenge is to be quick in finding good songs, writers of good songs, and artists suited to sing those good songs.” Fifty-five years have passed since I began working at this company, but that thinking hasn’t changed. Compared to the year 1960, sales of Western music in Japan have been declining. What do you t...
Ed Sheeran’s ‘Bad Habits’ Racing to 10th Week Atop U.K. Chart
“Bad Habits,” lifted from Sheeran’s forthcoming LP = (equals), is his second-longest reigning single in the U.K. behind only “Shape of You,” which ruled the U.K. chart for 14 weeks back in 2017. Meanwhile, Joel Corry and Jax Jones’ club tune “Out Out,” with assists from Charli XCX and Saweetie, lifts 10-5 on the Official Chart: First Look, which ranks singles based on streaming and sales activity in the first 48 hours of the chart week. Also, Tones And I’s “Fly Away” looks set for its first stint in the Top 10, lifting 13-9 on the chart blast, while “Butter” by BTS could return to the weekly survey following the release of a version featuring Megan Thee Stallion. It’s at No. 14 on the early tally. The Official U.K. Singles Chart is published late Friday, local time. You Deserve to Make Mon...
Lorde Powers Australia’s Albums Chart
The Aucklander will support the new LP in these parts with a tour of Australia, set for March 2022. Also new to the survey this week is Hello My Beautiful World (Wonderlick/Sony), the fourth album from Sydney alternative rock outfit Holy Holy. It’s new at No. 4, for the duo’s career chart peak. Hello My Beautiful World is the act’s fourth album and the followup to the ARIA Award-nominated effort My Own Pool Of Light, which reached No. 14 following its release in August 2019. Melbourne blues rock outfit Tropical F**k Storm sweeps into the Top 10 with Deep States (TFS/Universal), new at No. 7, for a new chart best. It’s the third album from the “supergroup,” comprised of members from The Drones, High Tension, MOD CON, Harmony, and Palm Springs. U.S. rapper Trippie Redd makes his first appear...
Tomorrowland Forms Dance Label With Universal Music Germany
Through the partnership, Tomorrowland will enjoy direct access to a collective pool of UMG’s international label divisions, including Virgin Records and Astralwerks in the U.S. Leading the partnership will be Berlin-based Virgin Records executives Alexander Neipp, Daniel Schmidt and Magnus Textor, and Tina Adams at Virgin Music Label & Artist Services. Over the past 15 years Tomorrowland has built a reputation as one of the world’s leading festivals and electronic music brands by consistently expanding and evolving their relationship with music fans,” Frank Briegmann, chairman and CEO, Universal Music Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon, said in a press release. He added that the partners had created a “uniquely flexible model” that will “help drive success and create global hits fo...
Watch Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Run from a Huge Ribbon in New ‘Gentenkaihi’ Video
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu shared the new music video accompanying her latest single called “Gentenkaihi,” which dropped Aug. 17. The video produced by the creative team N2B+peledona depicts Kyary’s efforts to shake off the lingering public image of her being an icon of Harajuku “kawaii” culture donning a big ribbon in her hair. The 28-year-old artist actually runs away from a huge — about 6.5 ft high, 8.2 ft wide — custom-made red ribbon throughout the video while also expressing her evolving style. Kyary shares that the day of the shoot was hot and the scene in the forest was tough to do, but that she’s proud of the result. “I’m being chased by a huge ribbon, which is my ‘genten’ (origin, roots), and also dance with a big ribbon on my head,” she says. “The day we shot it was really hot so the sce...
Example Signs With BMG: Exclusive
Example (real name Elliot Gleave) and his family is now based in Australia, where he struck the recording agreement with the domestic affiliate of BMG. “I never thought I’d sign another record deal,” he says in a statement. “I’d had so many experiences over the years—many good but also many negative—that I was looking forward to being independent for the foreseeable.” After meeting Heath Johns, BMG managing director Australia & New Zealand, and the label’s team in Sydney, “I was blown away with their ethos and their ambition,” Example recounts. “I have been given a fair deal that puts me and my team in the driving seat albeit with an incredible world class team at our disposal”. Ahead of the BMG deal, Example joined the management roster for boutique Brisbane, Australia-based mus...
Warner Music Nabs Kristin Burke From Universal to Run Canadian Label
Burke, who is currently executive vp and general manager at Universal Music Canada, where she has worked for more than 20 years, will report to Simon Robson, president, international, recorded music at Warner Music Group. She will succeed Steve Kane, who has served as president since 2004, and was inducted into the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in 2015. (Kane did not respond to a request for comment.) “Kristen has a great reputation across the industry, combining great strategic insight with an instinctive empathy for artists,” Robson said in a statement. Kane, in his own statement, said he knows the company’s “future is in safe hands,” adding that he plans to focus more energy on social justice issues and music. (Kane notoriously has shopped for vinyl every weekend si...
Lorde Challenges Olivia Rodrigo For U.K. No. 1 Album
Sour leads on physical sales and streams, and is on track for a fifth non-consecutive week at No. 1. Lorde’s previous albums Pure Heroine (2013) and Melodrama (2017) reached No. 4 and 5, respectively, though the latter ruled the Billboard 200 chart following its release. In a midweek Top 10 stacked with new releases, Jake Bugg’s Saturday Night (RCA) bows at No. 3, and is poised to be his fifth straight Top 10 album; Brentford MCs Kurupt FM are on track for a Top 5 debut with their first LP, The Greatest Hits (Part 1) (via Polydor) at No. 4; while Irish indie-folk act Villagers complete the Top 5 with their sixth and latest studio album Fever Dreams (Domino Recordings), which is set to be their first Top 10 album. Elsewhere, new sets from Jane McDonald (Let The Light In at No. 6 via JM...
Ed Sheeran’s ‘Visiting Hours’ on Course For High Debut In U.K.
“Visiting Hours” is no ordinary record. Sheeran wrote while in quarantine en route to Gudinski’s state memorial in Melbourne on March 24, and he premiered the emotional number on the night. Also joining Sheeran on stage that evening was Gudinski’s good friends and signings Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Barnes. Both are credited as backing singers on the single. Following his passing March 2, aged 68, Gudinski, the founder and chairman of the indie powerhouse Mushroom Group, was crowned Billboard’s International Power Player. Sheeran has described the Aussie entrepreneur as a “father figure” and a “tornado of joy,” and those memories will pour out in the new album, due out Oct. 29. The forthcoming LP is “a really personal record and one that means a lot to me,” ...
Splendour In The Grass Reschedules to 2022
The popular outdoor event was initially announced for July 2020, then, due to the health crisis, those dates were shifted to October 2020, then July 2021, to November 2021 and now July 2022. With lockdowns in place in the country’s two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, and the states of New South Wales — home to Sydney and Byron Bay — breaking an unwanted record of 886 infections Saturday (Aug. 21), hosting a festival in the months ahead is a tall order. “With vaccine rollout progressing more slowly than anticipated, we have made the decision to move the 20th Anniversary edition of the festival to July 2022,” says Splendour in the Grass co-founders Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco. “We are confident that moving the festival to July 2022 will finally see us enjoying Splendour...
