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Spotify Suspends Premium Accounts in Russia
Spotify has suspended its premium accounts in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a company executive said on Wednesday (March 9). Paul Vogel, the streaming platform’s CFO, said the shutdown would result in a loss of about 1.5 million paying customers in the first quarter of 2022, Variety reported. That is not expected to be material for the company: Russia represents less than 1% of Spotify’s total revenue of 9.67 billion euros ($10.93 billion) in 2021, up 22.7% from 2020. In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Spotify said last Wednesday that it was closing its office in Russia and removing content from state-sponsored broadcasters RT and Sputnik. The platform has been unable to add new premium accounts or to run advertising in Russia since credit card companies Visa, Mas...
Ukraine’s ‘Cellar Violinist’ Plays on Amid Heaving Bombing
A gentle tune from a violin played by a musician who has been dubbed Ukraine’s “cellar violinist” is a lullaby for a child sheltered in the dark basement of an apartment building in the besieged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Vera Lytovchenko has become an internet icon of resilience as images of the concert violinist playing in the basement bomb shelter have inspired an international audience via social media. When heavy Russian bombing of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv started two weeks ago, Lytovchenko, her professor father and neighbors sought safety in their building’s basement. “Bombs can fall everywhere in our city, so we decided to go down in the cellar,” the 39-year-old violinist told The Associated Press via Skype Wednesday during a brief respite from the bombing during a tem...
BTS’ Homecoming ‘Permission to Dance’ Concerts Have One Catch: A ‘No Yelling’ Rule
ARMY can turn a hashtag into a trend, turn a song into a hit. What they can’t do, is holler at BTS’s homecoming shows. The K-pop superstar return to Seoul for a round of triumphant shows this week at Jamsil Olympic Stadium. The novel coronavirus and its variants is still problematic around the globe. So, to combat the spread, strict guidelines are in place for the pop stars’ shows. Yelling and chanting is out, though, mercifully, clapping is not banned, explains a statement shared by BTS’ music company, Big Hit Entertainment. On the flip side, fans are encouraged to “groove while seated,” but it remains unclear just how much grooving is permitted. The Permission to Dance on Stage – Seoul shows are capped at 15,000, with 5% of those seats reserved for “disease prevention personnel.” Explore...
‘The Masked Singer’ Reveals McTerrier After On-Stage Howler
‘The Masked Singer got its seventh season underway with an episode that’ll be remembered for its comedy of errors, and for the fact its most controversial contestant remains in the game. On Wednesday night, the hit Fox series sent home its first participant, the celebrity working the McTerrier costume. Wearing a kilt and sporran, the upright hound rocked out from behind the drum kit before making his way to the mic for a performance of Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend”. McTerrier’s effort was dogged with problems. In one awkward moment, the man-sized terrier managed to knock the mask right off his costume. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Behind it was Duff Goldman, The Food Network star and renowned baker. The on-stage blunders weren’t missed by viewers back home. “Mask...
Post-Hardcore Hellions Alexisonfire Return With Otherness
“Band practice has always felt the same,” swears guitarist/vocalist Wade MacNeil about reconvening with his colleagues in post-hardcore aggregate Alexisonfire. “We’re just trying to make something that feels like us.” After going on hiatus in 2012, reuniting for a tour in 2015 and writing, recording and releasing three new songs, the quintet spent their pandemic quarantine creating Otherness, the follow-up to their 2009 album Old Crows/Young Cardinals. “I think what we felt we owed to the fans is, if we’re ‘back,’ then let’s be back. We want people to know this isn’t some nostalgia trip or victory lap. We’re playing because we love it and we want to be on the road playing those songs for the people that have allowed us to do this for the last 20 years.” Of course, it’s not like America eve...
FIFA 23 to Add Cross-Play for the First Time
According to gaming writer Tom Henderson, FIFA 23 will be receiving a host of new updates including cross-play for PC, Playstation, and Xbox across all game modes for the very first time. The Hypermotion technology for the game will see significant improvements, as the development team no longer relies on Xsens suits for motion capture, but instead uses stadium cameras to generate animations from advanced match footage. The change allows the team to capture “100 times” more data in a single season than they have ever captured before. FIFA 23 will also feature both men’s and women’s World Cups for the first time with an expansion of partnership agreements across major leagues. While it was previously reported that EA Sports has registered a trademark for “EA Sports F.C.” and may soon ...
Skin – HO99O9
RATING: 8/10 It starts with a burst of excoriating, abstract noise. As much as they have been hyped and praised by all kinds of notable people, HO99O9 are clearly not in the business of compromising to make their music more appealing. The first of 12 bewildering but utterly mesmerizing slabs of mutant sonic terrorism, “Nuge Snight” is a massive jolting dose of sound that seems to incorporate noise, hip-hop, industrial and unhinged electronica into one streamlined but eminently unpredictable whole. “Battery Not Included” is even better, as jagged thrash riffs collide with punishing, robot beats and the duo’s psychotic vocal attack. Midway through, a bittersweet, soulful melody emerges from the storm, before morphing into a hateful chug-fest that ends as abruptl...
AMON AMARTH’s JOHAN HEGG Clarifies His Criticism Of UFC, Says It’s ‘Fair’ To Target Russian Fighters With Sanctions
AMON AMARTH frontman Johan Hegg has clarified his criticism of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), saying that Russian fighters should be banned from completing on upcoming cards in order to put enough pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin and his regime so that he will end his country’s war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, Hegg took to his Twitter to say that he was boycotting the American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company as long as it was allowing Russian fighters “to compete and make money while children die in Ukraine.” After a number of people objected to Hegg‘s suggestion that Russian athletes must also be punished for their government’s aggression, the 48-year-old Swede returned to his social media to further explain his views while...
TED NUGENT Says First Amendment Should Apply To Social Media Companies, Rails Against Big Tech ‘Censorship’
Ted Nugent has once again railed against large social-media companies that block users from their platforms. The outspoken conservative rocker is an ardent supporter of former U.S. president Donald Trump who was famously suspended from his social accounts in January 2021 over public safety concerns in the wake of the Capitol riot. Nugent repeated his unsubstantiated accusations that tech companies are censoring his speech during Wednesday’s (March 9) edition of “The Nightly Nuge”, a news-style clip in which Ted offers his take on the news of our world every night. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We believe that even though high tech is something relatively new and advancing constantly, it’s the new town square. It’s where the First Amendme...
LAMB OF GOD Guitarist MARK MORTON And Ex-Drummer CHRIS ADLER Trade Insults On Twitter: ‘You Are A F**ing Douche’
Former LAMB OF GOD drummer Chris Adler has publicly referred to the band’s guitarist Mark Morton as a “fucking douche.” Adler‘s comment was apparently prompted by Morton‘s revelation that the guitarist was blocked on Twitter by Lee J. Carter, the American politician who represented the 50th district in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2018 to 2022. Earlier today, Mark shared a screenshot of a Twitter notification that he was blocked, and included the message, “But whyyyyyyyy?!?!?”, to which Chris responded, “Maybe because you are a fucking douche.” Within minutes, Morton fired back with “I usually wait until after dark to drunk message my exes”. The online exchange comes less than three years after LAMB OF GOD officially...
Kid Cudi’s ‘A Kid Named Cudi’ Is Coming To Streaming Services “Very Soon”
Kid Cudi‘s stellar 2008 mixtape A Kid Named Cudi will be hitting streaming services in the near future. During a performance on Encore, the virtual concert app he launched earlier this February, the artist verbally announced that A Kid Named Cudi will be coming to platforms “very soon” and will receive a vinyl release. Cudi initially stated the project’s arrival on streaming a year ago, tweeting, “Workin on puttin A Kid Named Cudi on streaming services!! I got u!!” A Kid Named Cudi was met with critical praise and caught the ear of Kanye West in 2008, who signed Cudi to G.O.O.D. Music that same year. The 17-track project includes fan favorites such as “Day ‘n’ Nite” — which also served as the lead single of his debut studio album Man on the Moon: The End of Day — “50 Ways to Make A Re...
HHW Gaming Review: ‘Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök’
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Ubisoft / Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is almost 2-years old, and yes, it’s still getting content added to it. The latest DLC, Dawn of Ragnarok, goes all-in on the Norse mythology, and it’s fun but isn’t the godly divine time we hoped it would be. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was the first next-gen game we played on our new Xbox Series X in 2020. At the time, we called the game another solid entry into Ubisoft’s now polarizing Assassin’s Creed video game franchise. What gave the game its legs after launch was its well-thought-out post-game DLC content that took Eivor to France and Ireland, continuing Eivor’s journey. We were most intrigued about Ubisoft Sofia’s Dawn of Ragnarok, which promised to give us a much differ...
