business
Folgers, Trombone Shorty Launch New Ad Campaign Featuring a Joan Jett Classic
Best known for its popular early ‘80s tagline “The Best Part of Wakin’ Up”, Folgers coffee is unveiling a new campaign today (Jan. 31) with a lot of fanfare — literally. To reinforce its reputation as a brand leader and simultaneously bolster its connection with next-generation coffee drinkers, Folgers commissioned the Joan Jett & the Blackhearts classic “Bad Reputation” as the theme song for its perception-shattering campaign. Headquartered in New Orleans, the 170-year-old firm — part of The J.M. Smucker Co. — also reached out to local favorite and Blue Note Records artist Trombone Shorty. In addition to imbuing the track with some energetic NOLA flavor, the Grammy-nominated musician, his brass bandmates and local Folgers employees also appear in the commercial. Being deployed across ...
Mike Alexander Named General Manager of Island Records
Universal Music Group veteran executive Mike Alexander has been named the general manager of Island Records, the label announced today (Jan. 31). Based in New York, Alexander will report to new Island co-CEOs Justin Eshak and Imran Majid. Alexander has spent the past year as executive vp at Island, helping the transition as former CEO Darcus Beese returned to his native England to take a job with Warner U.K. Prior to that role, Alexander was executive vp international at UMG, where his purview extended to Island, Republic and Def Jam. “Mike has a well-earned reputation as a successful global strategist,” Majid said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with him to build on the success of Island’s roster of new and established artists,” Added Eshak, “Mike’s experience gives hi...
Spotify to Add Content Advisory to Podcast Episodes That Include COVID-19 Discussions
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek on Sunday (Jan. 30) revealed updated platform rules and a new approach to dealing with COVID-19 information, including adding a dedicated content advisory to podcast episodes that contain discussions about the virus. A statement, posted to Spotify’s website, began by noting that the audio service was created “to enable the work of creators around the world to be heard and enjoyed by listeners around the world. To our very core, we believe that listening is everything.” The tech giant clarified that users have had questions over the last few days about policies “and the lines we have drawn between what is and isn’t acceptable.” While the statement did not reference any specific instances, it comes in the wake of musician Neil Young deciding to remove his...
E Street Band Member Nils Lofgren Pulls Music From Spotify, Encourages All Musicians to ‘Cut Ties’ With Service
Nils Lofgren, a longtime guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, is among the musicians to pull music from Spotify over concerns about COVID-19 misinformation being spread on the streaming platform. He follows Neil Young, who announced Wednesday (Jan. 26) that he would remove his catalogue in protest of COVID vaccine misinformation being spread on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and Joni Mitchell, who followed in solidarity soon after. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Both musicians referred to an open letter sent to Spotify from 270 professionals in the scientific and medical communities, calling on the streaming service to address misinformation distributed on the platform. In a statement shared to the Neil Young Archives on Saturday, Lofgren shared: “A few days ago, my wife and ...
Driift’s Streaming and Live Concert for Thom Yorke Side Project The Smile Officially Launches
Ric Salmon is preparing for his most ambitious live-streaming project yet with his team at Driift producing and promoting a three-part performance series for The Smile, a new side project from Radiohead legends Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. The Smile will perform three separate live shows in London, beginning Saturday (Jan. 29) at 8 p.m. BST (2 p.m. eastern), 1 a.m. BST on Jan 30 (5 p.m. eastern on Jan 29) and 11 a.m. BST (7 a.m. eastern) on Jan. 30. The performances will be live-streamed globally and include an in-studio live audience. Fans can watch The Smile performance from anywhere in the world via Dreamstage. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The concert series will preview music from the The Smile’s debut album, out soon on XL Recordings...
Apple Music Shows ‘Love’ for Joni Mitchell Too After She Asks Spotify to Remove Her Music
Following Neil Young and Joni Mitchell‘s requests to pull their music from Spotify, the streaming platform’s No. 1 competitor, Apple Music, is promoting the availability of both artists’ catalogs on its own platform — with a wink. On Thursday (Jan. 27), Apple Music first highlighted Young’s catalog under the editorial header “We Love Neil,” displayed prominently for users browsing for music on its platform. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news By Saturday, a “We Love Joni Too” header highlighting selections from Mitchell’s catalog was added directly below the Young header. Both phrases seem to be in response to the artists’ requests that Spotify purge their catalogs from its platform, due to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation spread by Spotify’s popula...
Record Store Day’s ‘Improbable’ Success Recounted in New Book for 15th Anniversary
Record Store Day is getting a book-length origin story. On April 12, ahead of the annual celebration’s 15th anniversary, Rare Bird will publish author Larry Jaffee’s Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century, a book recounting how the long-running event helped save independent record stores across the world and played a major role in relaunching the now-booming vinyl format. The tale is told in the voices of those who were pivotal to the movement, including RSD’s founders, artists who were supportive of the event and independent record store owners, among others. Jaffee is a New York-based journalist who teaches writing at the New York Institute of Technology and Mercy College and serves as co-founder/conference director of the Making Vinyl series of conferences th...
The biggest crypto heists of all time
The biggest crypto heists to date are MT Gox, Bitgrail, Coincheck, KuCoin, PancakeBunny, Poly Network, Cream Finance, BadgerDAO, Vulcan Forged and Bitmart. MT Gox MT Gox was the first large-scale exchange hack, and it remains the most significant Bitcoin (BTC) heist from an exchange. The MT Gox robbery, on the other hand, was not a one-off occurrence. Rather, the site leaked cash from 2011 to February 2014. Hackers stole 100,000 BTC from the exchange and 750,000 BTC from its consumers over a few years. These Bitcoin burglaries were valued at $470 million at the time, but they’re now worth approximately ten times this amount. Shortly after the theft, MT Gox went into liquidation, with liquidators recovering roughly 200,000 of the stolen BTC. Bitgrail Bitgrail was a small Italian excha...
Joni Mitchell Pulling Music from Spotify in Solidarity With Neil Young
Joni Mitchell is joining her old friend and contemporary Neil Young in having her legendary music catalog pulled from Spotify over concerns about vaccine misinformation being spread on the platform’s popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast. In a brief note posted to her official website on Friday, the singer-songwriter wrote, “I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Mitchell’s announcement comes just two days after Spotify confirmed it would be granting Young’s request to have his music removed from the platform. Young made the ...
Jay DeMarcus’ Red Street Records Launches Country Division
Rascal Flatts‘ Jay DeMarcus is expanding his Red Street brand with the launch of Red Street Country after launching the company as a Christian label, Red Street Records, in 2018. DeMarcus, who is Red Street’s owner/CEO, and owner/chairman Dan Crockett are celebrating the label’s expansion with a press conference Thursday (Jan. 27) at the label’s Nashville headquarters. DeMarcus and Crockett are funding both labels, which are self-distributed. Red Street Country’s first signing is singer-songwriter Ryan Griffin, whose self-released single, “Salt, Lime & Tequila,” reached No. 3 on Billboard‘s Country Digital Song Sales chart last year and No. 1 on SiriusXM’s The Highway. Griffin is working on a new album. Several notable music industry veterans have joined the Red Street Country tea...
Bybit announces 2 notable updates: completion of Arbitrum integration, funds BitDAO with $134M
Bybit, a global cryptocurrency exchange that has seen extensive growth over the past few years, has finally completed the integration of the Arbitrum mainnet, according to a press statement published on 27 January. Arbitrum is an Ethereum Layer 2 platform that was among the first to bring the optimistic rollups features to the Ethereum network. According to the press release shared with CoinText, the move means users can now deposit and withdraw Ether (ETH) as well as the stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) via the Arbitrum mainnet. Security, scalability and low cost Ben Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Bybit said the integration brings Arbitrum’s “promising and innovative scaling technology” to Bybit users. He noted that the exchange will continue to provide next-level products a...
FTX US hits $8BN valuation after securing $400M in Series A funding round
The exchange intends to use the funds to expand its workforce by hiring more experts FTX US, the US affiliate arm of global exchange FTX, has concluded its first funding round, netting $400 million. The fundraising drew support from several huge names, including SoftBank Group, blockchain-focused venture capital firm Paradigm and Singapore-based investment company Temasek. Other participants that featured include Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Multicoin Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tribe Capital, and Steadview Capital. The exchange is now valued at $8 billion, making it one of the biggest players in the US cryptocurrency sector. This new valuation is at par with the target set by FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Friend last December. FTX previously c...
