business
Blockchain Streaming Platform Audius Victim of $6M Hack
Audius, a blockchain-based streaming service, announced over the weekend that a hacker managed to steal and sell millions of dollars worth of AUDIO tokens from the platform. The hacker was able to find and exploit a bug in Audius’ smart contract — the code that allows decentralized platforms to function without intermediaries. Other companies have been hit in a similar fashion: The blockchain security firm Beosin recently estimated that close to $2 billion has been lost to hacking incidents in the first half of 2022. “The most common hacking techniques continue to be contract vulnerability exploitation and flash loans,” Beosin noted. On Saturday, Audius tweeted that it was looking into “reports of an unauthorized transfer… from the community treasury.” The following day, the company publis...
Self-Described R. Kelly Manager Pleads Guilty to Stalking
A self-described manager and adviser to R. Kelly pleaded guilty Tuesday (July 26) to an interstate stalking charge, less than a week after he was convicted of making a phone threat that gunfire was about to occur in a Manhattan theater where a documentary about the singer was about to be shown. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Donnell Russell, 47, of Chicago, entered the plea in Brooklyn federal court. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Russell used threats, harassment and intimidation to silence one of Kelly’s sexual abuse victims. Kelly, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison last month, was convicted last year of racketeering and sex trafficking. Peace said in a statement that Russell sent threatening messages to the woman and her mother...
Lollapalooza Expands to India in 2023, Marking Festival’s Asia Debut
MUMBAI — Lollapalooza is traveling to India, a price sensitive live music market where the appetite for international music of all genres has grown considerably in the streaming era. The multi-genre festival will be staged in Mumbai on Jan. 28-29, 2023, marking its debut in Asia. BookMyShow, India’s largest ticketing platform, is promoting and co-producing Lollapalooza India, along with global producers Perry Farrell, WME and C3 Presents, which is owned by Live Nation. The festival’s Mumbai installment, which will take place at an as-yet unannounced venue “in the center of the city,” will feature around 45 acts playing 20 hours of music across four stages to an audience of 60,000 fans each day. The line-up will comprise 60% international artists and 40% local acts, the promoters tell Billb...
Chipotle takes ‘buy the dip’ literally with new $200K crypto giveaway
United States-based fast casual restaurant chain Chipotle has started an online game which will give customers the chance to win more than $200,000 in crypto. In a Monday announcement, Chipotle said that, through July 31, fans would be able to play its “Buy The Dip” game using their rewards accounts. The company will give away $45,000 in Bitcoin (BTC), $10,000 in Ether (ETH), $13,750 in Solana (SOL), $14,250 in Avalanche (AVAX) and $14,250 in Dogecoin (DOGE) via the game. “We want to build the next generation of Chipotle fandom by connecting with the Web3 community,” said Chipotle chief marketing officer Chris Brandt. Free crypto giveaway? — Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) July 25, 2022 The restaurant chain gave away $100,000 in BTC in April 2021 as part of a promotion for National Burrito Day....
Crypto user who lost $163M in Bitcoin wants to deploy robot search party — Report
James Howells, a British man who mistakenly discarded a hard drive containing roughly 7,500 Bitcoin (BTC) in 2013, has reportedly started looking at having robots and humans work together to retrieve his crypto from a local landfill. According to a Sunday report from Business Insider, Howells has pitched an $11-million idea to locate and recover the lost hard drive, which may be surrounded by up to roughly 110,000 tons of garbage. Backed by a few venture capitalists, the proposal involved people, robot dogs and other machines picking up and sorting through the landfill’s trash for up to three years until the lost Bitcoin is found, while another version of Howells’ plan would cost $6 million and take 18 months. Many crypto users recognize Howells’ actions as a telltale story of the importan...
Colleen Ironside, One of ‘Most Respected’ Promoters in Asia, Has Died
Colleen Ironside, the live music professional who, with her force-of-nature personality, set the groundwork for a pan-Asian touring network and produced scores of tours in the region for Live Nation and other companies, has died. Ironside cut her teeth in the music industry as a booking agent for the Harbour Premier Agency in Sydney, Australia. She went out on her own, establishing and running APA Booking Agency, which booked INXS, Ratcat, James Reyne, Jenny Morris and Wendy Matthews for Australia, New Zealand and Asia. In 1994, a promotion for Ironside with Frontier Touring, which gave her the reins on regional tours for such acts as Pearl Jam, REM, Tom Jones and Hootie and the Blowfish. In 1999 she set up her business, Live Limited, which would tour acts through Asia including Cold...
Music Execs Flood to Invest in New Contract Creation Tech
Creative Intell has raised $3 million in seed funding that includes some of music’s top industry veterans for a service that automates how legal contracts are written. As everything from banking to project management has been revolutionized by online platforms, entertainment law remains the domain of Word, Dropbox and email. “This industry is absolutely behind,” says co-founder Steven Ship, who along with co-founder David Fritz of the entertainment law firm Boyarski Fritz is intent on making contracts accessible and understandable for independent musicians and producers while improving the workflow and efficiency of enterprise clients such as law firms. The product is currently in private beta and is expected to roll out to a wider audience this fall. Creative Intell has not revealed its p...
Brad Paisley, Lady A Sell Music Rights to HarbourView
In another move reflecting its diversified genre approach to music acquisitions, HarbourView Equity Partners has entered the Nashville scene in a big way with new investments in Brad Paisley and Lady A‘s catalogs. Paisley, who has won three Grammy awards and has generated activity totaling 17.4 million album consumption units in the U.S., has sold his music royalty income stream to his master recording catalog to HarbourView. Beyond his successful music career, Paisley remains in the spotlight most recently thanks to his involvement in Nationwide Insurance advertising campaigns and due to his partnership with Boot Barn for the Moonshine Spirit clothing line. His last studio album was Love and War in 2017, which reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart and peaked at No. 1 on Top Country Al...
Swedish House Mafia Cancels More Shows
Swedish House Mafia has canceled five more shows on its upcoming 2022 Paradise Again arena tour on Friday (July 22). The newly canceled shows include July 31 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Aug. 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Aug. 9 at TD Garden in Boston, Aug. 11 at Verizon Arena Washington D.C. and Aug. 17 in Detroit at Little Caesars Arena. Many arena acts are facing sluggish ticket sales, especially at the arena level where a number of first-time tours are playing to half-empty houses. Festivals too have struggled amid a wave of oversaturation and reduced consumer spending. Editor’s note: This story is in the process of being updated. [flexi-common-toolbar] [flexi-form class=”flexi_form_style” title=”Submit to Flexi” name=”my_form” ajax=R...
Top Bruce Springsteen Ticket Prices Fueled Rage, But the Average Cost Wasn’t So High
Bruce Springsteen fans had a rough introduction to the world of dynamic ticket pricing Wednesday (July 20), as many logged into Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform to buy tickets for his upcoming tour with the E Street Band and experienced sticker shock at the cost of the best seats. Those prices – which climbed into the thousands of dollars, as widely reported – represented about 1 percent of the tickets listed on the Ticketmaster Verified Fan sale, but they became a sore point for fans who felt that they no longer had a shot at great seats after years of loyalty to the Boss. By selling high-priced platinum tickets, Ticketmaster argues, the company can prevent the best seats from being bought and resold by scalpers. That money can instead go to Springsteen. However, this only works when ...
Swedish House Mafia Cancels More Shows Due to Poor Ticket Sales
Swedish House Mafia has canceled five more shows on its upcoming 2022 Paradise Again arena tour on Friday (July 22) after months of anemic sales, despite promoter Live Nation’s best efforts to move tickets at discounted rates. The newly canceled shows include July 31 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Aug. 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Aug. 9 at TD Garden in Boston, Aug. 11 at Verizon Arena Washington D.C. and Aug. 17 in Detroit at Little Caesars Arena. The tour’s poor ticket sales and struggles to generate interest have been widely known in the live music business, and many arena acts are facing sluggish ticket sales, especially at the arena level where a number of first-time tours are playing to half-empty houses. Festivals too have struggled amid a wave of oversaturation and redu...
Board urges Bank of Central African States to introduce common digital currency: Report
The Bank of Central African States, or Banque des États de l’Afrique, which serves Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo, could be closer to releasing a central bank digital currency reportedly at the urging of its board. According to a Friday report from Bloomberg, the board sent an email calling for the regional bank to introduce a digital currency in an effort to modernize payment structures and promote regional financial inclusion. The Central African Republic, or CAR, passed legislation adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in the country in April, but has not recognized a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Nigeria’s central bank was one of the first in the region to launch a CBDC called the eNaira in October ...
