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Spotify’s Russian Push Targets New Market With Considerable Growth Potential
The streaming service has announced an expansion into 13 new markets, reaching potentially 250 million new users — if only it can sign them up. Spotify is launching its streaming service in Russia and 12 other countries in Europe, marking an important expansion that will bring the music streamer to nearly 250 million new listeners and effectively blanket Europe with the service. In addition to Russia, the 16th-largest streaming market, Spotify will push into Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The launch comes as the digital streamer has been expanding aggressively into new markets. It introduced the platform in India in 2019; in 14 markets in the Middle East and Africa in 2018 (inc...
How We Work Now: Sofar Sounds VP City Operations Amanda Presson
In a series amid the coronavirus pandemic, Billboard is asking individuals from all sectors of the music business to share stories of how they work now, with much of the world quarantined at home and unable to take in-person meetings, attend conferences or even go into the office. Submissions for the series can be sent to HowWeWorkNow@Billboard.com. Read the full series here. This installment is with Amanda Presson, vp of city operations at intimate concert series company Sofar Sounds. Amanda Presson: [The shutdown] was such a huge shift for us, because we are so focused on the live event experience and bringing our communities together in person. After we had to halt our core business, our first thought went to, “How do we continue to support artists?” That was such a big part of our miss...
Robby Krieger Explores Jazz for His Upcoming Solo Project, But With ‘a Little Zappa, a Little Doors’
The album — the guitarist’s first in a decade — will arrive Aug. 14. One of Neil Young’s best-known lyrics — “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” — can be applied to numerous casualties of ’60s rock n’ roll. Yet despite the turmoil he has experienced over his career, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger has neither burned out nor faded away. Krieger wrote some of The Doors’ best songs, including “Light My Fire,” “Love Me Two Times,” “Touch Me” and “Love Her Madly.” And for the past 10 years, he has written jazz, blues and rock music from his home studio; guested on other people’s albums; formed the charity Art for a Cause to sell prints of his colorful paintings; and performed both Doors tunes and his solo material on tour. Now, a decade since his last album, ...
Karen O Collaborates With Napa Winery to Raise Funds for Black Trans Community
Karen O has teamed up with Napa Valley winery Ashes & Diamonds to create 18 hand-painted magnum bottles of rosé. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer admitted that she hasn’t been making any new music during the pandemic and has pushed that creative energy towards painting wine labels. “I had been yearning to just sit at my desk and paint and draw for years,” she said in a statement. “The part of my brain that I use to make music shut off when the pandemic hit, so this quiet project of falling into a Kenneth Anger-esque fairytale was a nice place to go when I couldn’t go anywhere. Where I could lean my head on the shoulder of Lou Reed’s muse Rachel as the underworld closed in around us, where nymphs have tangled tresses and swim with stilettos, where I could wash and be clean in the smoke and th...
Ghost of Tsushima Composer Ilan Eshkeri Brings the Sounds of 13th Century Japan to Modern Audiences
With the current console generation in its final days, much of the hype within the gaming industry is understandably centered around titles coming out for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. But just as the PS3 and Xbox 360 went out with a bang, the consoles of today still have some tricks up their sleeves as well. For Sony, that last hurrah may very well come in the form of Ghost of Tsushima, the final PlayStation exclusive in a generation that was dominated by them. Outside of multiplatform titles like Cyberpunk 2077, the July 17 release following a Japanese warrior in the 13th century marks what is likely the last major game for the PS4. Of course, no battle against the Mongol empire would be complete without an appropriate soundtrack, and the developers at Sucker Punch Productions wer...
BTS Unveil New Album Map of the Soul : 7 ~ The Journey ~: Stream
It’s another special day for the BTS ARMY, as BTS have officially released their new album, Map of the Soul : 7 ~ The Journey ~, via Big Hit Entertainment. It’s now available to stream below via Apple Music or Spotify. This effort serves as the beloved K-pop group’s first Japanese album in over two years. Its 13 offerings expand on the tracklist of BTS’s most recent Korean-language record, Map of the Soul : 7, which dropped back in February. Included on ~ The Journey ~ are two all-new original songs, “Stay Gold” and “Rasen no Meikyuu -DNA Kagaku Sousa-“, as well as newly recorded versions of “ON”, “Black Swan”, “Make It Right”, and “Dionysus” in Japanese. Following today’s digital release, a physical version of the new album will arrive August 7th. Limited-edition versions of the ...
Makaya McCraven Announces New Album Universal Beings E&F Sides, Shares “Mak Attack”: Stream
Makaya McCraven released one of the 2018’s most acclaimed jazz albums in Universal Beings. Now, the Chicago-based drummer and producer is prepping to drop a companion piece called Universal Beings E&F Sides, in addition to a documentary series about the record. E&F Sides promises 14 “new pieces of organic beat music” that were cut from the original sessions for Universal Beings proper. One of those “Mak Attack”, which finds McCraven fiercely “attacking” his kit like the percussion beast that he is. As for the corresponding documentary, the visual will be soundtracked by the music found on E&F Sides. Its footage chronicles the making of breakthrough album Universal Beings, following McCraven in the studio and on the road as he traveled to California, New York, and...
Fender Launches New Player Offset Electric Guitar Models
Fender has announced new additions to its Player line of entry-level electric guitars. The Offset models are designed especially for aspiring guitarists playing “styles that thrive on nonconformity.” The Offset collection features some of Fender’s most bold and eccentric body styles, featuring the Mustang, Mustang 90, Mustang Bass PJ, and Duo-Sonic. Fender fans will recognize these shapes from the guitar company’s stable of iconic designs, but the Offset series brings a new level of accessibility. With their budget price point and smaller, lightweight bodies, the guitars are targeted toward beginner-to-intermediate level guitarists and female players, according to a Fender representative. “Each model delivers the signature Fender sound that has dominated the guitar scene for more than 70 y...
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Return with Sweet New Single “Honey”: Stream
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have returned with “Honey”, their first new material since last summer’s Infest the Rats’ Nest. Nearly five minutes in length, the single leans on the more gentle, twangier side of psychedelia, as frontman Stu Mackenzie praises a special someone (“the magic potion”) that’s kept him afloat during these uncertain times. “You taste like honey/ All warm and runny/ Kinder than candy/ Effervescent shandy/ Days are ever sweeter when I wake up near ya,” he sings on the track, which isn’t to be confused with The Jesus and Mary Chain’s similarly titled saccharine alt-rock hit. Accompanying the song is a video directed and edited by John Angus Stewart. “Shot at sunset during the apocalypse with a reeeeeeal long lens,” Mackenzie noted on Twitter. “I wrote this s...
Alice Cooper Calls for U.S. Police Departments to ‘Weed Out the Bad Guys’
While Alice Cooper has been channeling his energies toward his Solid Rock non-profit during COVID-19, he recently shared his thoughts surrounding racism and police brutality. Staring his music career around the same time as the civil rights movement was gaining more momentum, Cooper talked about how the same problems in the ’60s are still issues today. “You would have thought that that solved the problem,” he said during an interview with Hawaii Public Radio’s All Things Considered. “But there’s always that five percent of people that are racist.” Cooper admitted that he knows “a lot of cops” but said, “I don’t know one racist cop. But I guarantee you that five percent of the police force in every city have got a racial problem. And those are the guys that get all the headlines because the...
Margo Price Dives Into Poolside Performance of ‘Letting Me Down’ on Kimmel
A zoom rendition just wasn’t going to cut it for Margo Price. On her latest Jimmy Kimmel Live! performance, Price instead opted for a full band and — like any summertime get-down — a floatie-filled pool, while sharing her track “Letting Me Down.” The song comes from Price’s latest album, That’s How Rumors Get Started, and last night’s performance was a testament to how talented you have to be to not only arrange a whole set-up around your pool but also to not fall in. Throughout the performance, Price can be seen hanging out on a glider swing and bouncing around the pool as her backing band holds their own. Price’s album was supposed to drop back in May, but she pushed the release to last week after COVID-19 hit. Still, after last week’s drop, the music video for “Letti...
NIGHTWISH’s FLOOR JANSEN: ‘After 20 Years Of Rock And Metal, I Think I Would Like To Do Something Else’
In a new interview with Metal Hammer magazine, NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen was asked if she had any plans to make another album with the NORTHWARD project, in which she was joined by Jørn Viggo Lofstad, the guitarist of Norwegian band PAGAN’S MIND. “I’m not sure I will,” she said. “That project was written in 2008. Because we had a year off from NIGHTWISH, I was able to finalize it, to see if the songs are still up to date, whether we could record it or not. I was just happy to have a moment to release it, 10 years after we wrote it. But after 20 years of rock and metal, I think I would like to do something else. I don’t mean stop with NIGHTWISH, but something alongside it. “I was recently involved in a TV show in my home country in the Netherlan...
