Millions of listeners have been coping with the loneliness, moral fatigue, and existential boredom of a global pandemic to the beat of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage,” so many that the song took the top spot on the RS 100. Yet overall, Americans have been seeking solace not in synthetic beats, …
Read More »No Recording Equipment? A Music Manager and Engineer Built a Professional Studio in a RV
Recording studios are still closed along with all other “non-essential” businesses. That hasn’t derailed music-making for huge stars with home studios or bedroom pop purveyors who rely entirely on laptops. It does, however, present a problem to everyone in between. But what if artists could order a sound-proofed RV — …
Read More »Live Nation Is Planning for Crowdless Shows and Drive-In Concerts
With concerts on hold for the past two months due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Live Nation Entertainment on Thursday reported a 21% drop in revenue for its first quarter, with concert revenue alone dipping 25% and ticket revenue dropping 16% year over year. Shares of Live Nation — which …
Read More »Will Coronavirus Cancel Coachella and Other Music Festivals?
Concert season is coming at the worst possible time this year. As the global coronavirus outbreak creeps into major cities across the U.S., the music business — which depends on large-scale festivals for billions of dollars in annual profit —is weighing the costs of canceling lavish events against the economic …
Read More »It's a Taylor Swift World and We're All Forcibly Living in It: A Timeline
Did you know Taylor Swift released an album today? If not — how are things, living as you do under a seven-ton rock inside your mossy cave in Xilitla? Swift’s 18-track Lover dropped at midnight Thursday, yet the record has been undergoing a months-long slow release — à la the …
Read More »'Baby Shark' is Shooting Up the Charts, But No One Owns the Rights
You’d think a song that is everywhere on the Internet — exploding on music charts, racking up billions of streams and downloads and YouTube plays, and even making it into the celebrity zeitgeist as it did this week on Cardi B’s Instagram — would be making its creator filthy rich. …
Read More »The Average Spotify Subscriber Pays $5.50 a Month — and Record Labels Hate It
On the surface of things, New York-based Warner Music Group should be delighted.The company, which owns the third-biggest recorded-music operation in the world, just posted record full-year results for the 12 months to the end of September last year. WMG’s annual recorded-music revenues grew by $340 million, or 11 percent, …
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