NME, the venerated British music title, has launched in Asia. Based in Singapore and operated by BandLab Technologies, the NME.com/Asia site will hope to feed the growing appetite in southeast Asia for music news, features and pop-culture insights. Currently, the platform has a split of 60-70% international content from the flagship U.K. title, and 30-40% local content. A core team of four writers handle copy from across the region, led by Iliyas Ong, former editor of Time Out Singapore; and Karen Gwee, former editor of Bandwagon and writer at NPR. The initial push-out focuses on Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, Meng Ru Kuok, CEO of BandLab Technologies tells Billboard. “Singapore is unique, it imports music very well and it tends to the indie music scene, in which NME is strong.” ...
An Internet personality, Ismaila Mustapha, popularly called Mompha, on Tuesday filed a suit seeking to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to pay him N5 million as damages for alleged unlawful re-arrest and detention. Newsmen report that Mustapha, who is facing a N32 billion fraud charge, was re-arrested on Friday, (Aug.14) by the EFCC. He was re-arrested when he went to the EFCC Office, Ikoyi, Lagos, to reclaim his five wristwatches, one Apple airpod, one iPhone, eight mobile phones and one pair of sunglasses seized from him by the anti-graft agency in 2019. The visit followed a ruling given by Justice Mohammed Liman on July 24, in which the judge ordered the release of the seized items on the grounds that the EFCC did not list them as exhibits in court. In the suit...
Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue has advised both current and former appointees in the state to always appear before investigative panels, when invited. Ortom gave the advice on Tuesday in Makurdi when the Committee saddled with the responsibility of investigating the current state of the State Teaching Service Board (TSB) presented its report to him. The governor said that when they fail to make such appearance before investigative panels, they would be doing a lot of disservice to themselves. “You will be doing yourselves a lot of disservice when you are invited to come and make explanation on an issue or issues concerning you and you fail to turn up. “The panel avails you the opportunity to come and clear the doubts about you, but if you fail to appear, whatever the outcome may be, it will be...
The three-day event is the first Latin festival to sell out during the pandemic. A Latin and Reggaeton festival in South Baja is giving hope to festival promoters following a strong sell out. Earlier today, organizers of the Baja Beach Fest announced that they had sold all available tickets for the festival — slated to run Aug. 13-15, 2021 — in its first year as an expanded three-day event. In total, 35,000 three-day passes starting at $329 were sold in about four weeks thanks to a strong lineup headlined by Ozuna, Anuel AA and J Balvin. That makes it one of the first sellouts of a 2021 festival during the pandemic. Launched in 2018 by Aaron Ampudia and Chris Den Uijl and held at Papas and Beer in Rosarito, Mexico — a small beach to...
The First Lady, Aisha Buhari, on Tuesday called for concerted efforts through positive action to end the scourge of severe malnutrition in children in Nigeria. Buhari made the call during a virtual Conference on Malnutrition with the theme: ”Harnessing Innovative Options for Nutrition-Unravelling the Bottlenecks” in Abuja. The first Lady who was represented by the wife of Vice President Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, expressed concern over the rising cases of malnourished children in spite of efforts by relevant stakeholders. ”We have the Federal and State Councils on Nutrition chaired by key government officials who ensure that decisions on nutrition related issues are not delayed. ”We have Policies at federal and state levels addressing various aspects of Nutrition as well” she said. Buhari said g...
The Swedish company, which operates in 73 markets, is pushing to disrupt the background music segment of the market. The growing segment of music streaming for businesses has taken another step forward. Soundtrack Your Brand, a cloud-based music service that is trying to become the Spotify of the business streaming world, signed a global licensing deal with Universal Music Group to use its catalog of music on the platform. The Stockholm-based company, which says it is the world’s fastest growing B2B music platform, delivers the flexibility of music-streaming technology to brands and businesses. Founded in 2013 with Spotify as a co-founder, Soundtrack Your Brand operates in 73 countries and competes in the background music segment with startups like Rockbot as well as with entrenched player...
West Africa School Certificate Examination WASCE commenced examinations for the final year students in 521 centres in Nasarawa with adequate arrangements in accordance with the Covid-19 pandemic protocols. The State Commissioner of Education, Fati Sabo, while monitoring the conduct of the examination in some public and private centres in the state to ascertain the level of compliance said a total of 521 centres were created for the Senior Secondary school Certificate Examination in the State. The Commissioner while at Government Secondary School, Mararaban Akunza expressed worries over absence of face mask at the WAEC centre, but however expressed satisfaction with the level of compliance and availability of hygienic items. “We provided students and invigilators with face mask, infrared to...