business
Joan Baez to Receive 2020 Woody Guthrie Prize
Joan Baez is this year’s recipient of the Woody Guthrie Prize, in recognition of her “groundbreaking career and impact on humanitarian causes.” The legendary folk singer, activist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will be inducted Aug. 16 during a virtual edition of the Philadelphia Folk Festival. The prize was established in 2014 and is given each year to an artist who best exemplifies the spirit and life work of Woody Guthrie by speaking for the less fortunate and serving as a positive force for social change. Baez “has consistently been on the front lines in the fight for social justice, peace, and equality,” comments Woody Guthrie Center Director Deana McCloud in a statement. We are proud to announce @joancbaez as the recipient of the 2020 Woody Guthrie Prize honoring h...
Digital Devices Hit ‘Inevitable’ Milestone, Passing Analog in Listening Time for 2020
Digital devices are now the dominant method of listening to music, and the coronavirus seems to be behind the latest growth wave. For the first time since Edison Research began documenting audio consumption with its Share of Ear study in 2014, digital and on-demand platforms owned over half of consumers’ time spent listening during the second quarter of 2020. Listeners accessed music through smartphones, computers, internet-connected TVs and smart speakers during 53% of their listening hours. The other 47% of listening came through more traditional means, such as AM/ FM receivers, SiriusXM devices, CD players, turntables and standard TV. In the previous study, traditional devices still maintained the advantage, amassing 55% of the daily time spent listening. Digital’s rise past...
Find Out Who’s Performing at the (Virtual) 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival
The 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival is officially a go. On Tuesday (July 21), iHeartMedia announced that the tenth annual iteration of the event will be held virtually this fall. Among the performers set to take the stage are BTS, Coldplay, Kane Brown, Khalid and more. Hosted by Ryan Seacrest, the festival will be recorded live from venues in both Los Angeles and Nashville with behind-the-scenes moments about how the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has impacted the music industry on a personal level for the artists performing. “It’s hard to believe that this September will be the 10th iHeartRadio Music Festival,” said iHeartMedia chief programming officer Tom Poleman in a statement. “The 2011 Festival was iHeart’s first national marquee event and became the model for our hugely su...
Interscope Records Scores Six Songs in Hot 100’s Top 10 Simultaneously, Thanks to DaBaby & Juice WRLD
DaBaby’s “Rockstar” leads at No. 1, followed by five Juice WRLD songs. As previously reported, DaBaby‘s “Rockstar,” featuring Roddy Ricch, logs a sixth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated July 25), while the late Juice WRLD charts five songs in the chart’s top 10. With “Rockstar” released on SouthCoast/Interscope Records and Juice WRLD’s five new top 10s on Grade A/Interscope, Interscope infuses the Hot 100’s top 10 with six songs. That’s the most for a label in a single week since Republic Records also claimed six on the chart dated Sept. 21, 2019. Republic additionally logged six top 10s on charts dated May 18, 2019; Oct. 13, 2018; and July 28, 2018, the most since the label landed seven, all by Drake, on J...
Apple Music Partners With ‘Verzuz’ to Simulcast the Battle Series & Offer On-Demand Streaming
Verzuz, the breakout live-streaming battle series co-helmed by legendary hip-hop producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, will now be available on Apple Music and Beats 1. Each battle will be simulcast live on the music streaming service for free, at the same time it streams on the Verzuz Instagram account. After the live battle, music fans will be able to relive the musical greatness by watching it on-demand via the series’ exclusive partnership with Apple Music. This Wednesday (July 22) will bring a face-off between Snoop Dogg and DMX, beginning at 5:00 p.m. PT. Before the big showdown — being billed as “the battle of the dogs” — fans can get ready by tuning in to the official Snoop Dogg and DMX Cheat Sheet playlist curated by Apple Music host Lowkey. Apple Musi...
UK Music Magazine ‘Q’ Folds After 34 Years Due to Pandemic
British music magazine Q is publishing its final issue on July 28. The beloved long-running monthly, which has been integral to U.K. rock and alternative scene, will cease publication after 34 years due to financial constraints caused by the coronavirus crisis. “We’ve been a lean operation for all of my tenure, employing a variety of ways to help keep our head above water in an extremely challenging print market,” wrote editor Ted Kessler in his final Q editor’s letter. “Covid-19 wiped all that out. I must apologise profusely for my failure to keep Q afloat.” Parent company Bauer Media listed Q for sale among several other titles in May, following a sharp decline in sales and advertising revenue during the pandemic. The publishing industry ...
Tones And I, Benee, Hayden James & More Top Yours & Owls 2021 Festival
BRISBANE — The end of the pandemic is still a long way off, but the summer festivals season is already starting to take shape Down Under. Tones And I, Benee, Cosmo’s Midnight and DMA’S lead the bill for the Yours & Owls 2021 fest, due to take place Jan. 23-24 in Stuart Park, Wollongong, about 90 minutes drive south of Sydney. Lime Cordiale, whose new album 14 Steps To A Better You, is the best-seller on Australia’s albums chart this week, is also booked for the show, alongside PNAU, Hockey Dad and many more. Yours & Owls is the festival template of the future or, more specifically, until a vaccine is widely available. With rigid quarantine restrictions placed on any visitors to these parts, international acts won’t be playing Australian stages anytime ...
Lime Cordiale Score First Australian No. 1, Juice WRLD’s ‘Legends Never Die’ Makes Big Chart Splash
Lime Cordiale land their first No. 1 in the Land Down Under, while Juice WRLD makes a big entrance with his posthumous album release Legends Never Die. Brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach, the backbone of Sydney indie-rock oufit Lime Cordiale, bow at the summit of the ARIA Albums Chart with 14 Steps To A Better You (Chugg Music/MGM), their sophomore set which contains three tracks from the 2019 Triple J Hottest 100 countdown: “Robbery” (No. 7), “Inappropriate Behavior” (No. 13) and “Money” (No. 32). Lime Cordiale’s chart effort easily beats the No. 79 peak of their debut LP Permanent Vacation, from October 2017. 14 Steps To A Better You is the tenth Australian No. 1 album on the ARIA Charts in 2020. Completing an all-Australian top two is DMA...
DJ Khaled Set for Top Debuts on U.K. Singles Chart
Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo are on track for a fourth successive U.K. chart crown with “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)”. But they’ve got a battle on their hands. The Kiwi producer and U.S. R&B artist lead the U.K. sales blast with their viral hit, which races to an early lead of 1,500 combined sales lead over Joel Corry & MNEK’s dance track “Head and Heart.” After 48 hours of the new chart week, “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” takes top spot on the Official Chart: First Look Top 20. “Head and Heart” is “catching up,” the Official Charts Company reports. If the pair can outpace the incumbent, it’ll be both artists’ first No. 1. Elsewhere, DJ Khaled is set to score the two highest new entries...
England to Allow Indoor Concerts Starting Next Month
Social distancing will be required as the country enters phase 4 of a five-stage reopening plan. Audiences who adhere to social distancing can return to indoor theaters, music and performance venues beginning Aug. 1, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday (July 17). The policy represents the fourth phase in the country’s five-stage reopening plan for live events. In the lead up to the August start date, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will conduct pilots of performances with socially-distanced audiences — including the London Symphony Orchestra at St. Luke’s London — using the findings there to inform final guidance for venues. The announcement notes that “audiences, performers and venues will be expected to maintain social distancing at all tim...
Universal Music Group Makes Election Day 2020 a Company Holiday
The measure sprang from a recommendation by the company’s recently-announced social justice task force. Universal Music Group is making voting easier for its U.S. employees by making Election Day 2020, Nov. 3, a paid company holiday. The company announced the news to staffers in an internal memo Friday (July 17) and obtained by Billboard. “After all, the right to vote is the very foundation of democracy — perhaps of freedom itself,” reads the memo, which notes that only 56% of eligible U.S. voters cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. “As Americans, we have fought long and hard to win the right to vote. It took 91 years after the Constitution was enacted until people of color won the right, and even then, it was only males. It took 143 years after the...
Here’s When Billboard’s New Bundle-Banning Chart Rules Will Go Into Effect
The biggest changes start in October, but as of now, no new ticket or merch bundles are being approved. Billboard has set start dates for new rule changes to its charts doing away with the controversial practice of “bundling” albums with concert tickets and merchandise to drive market share and music sales. The changes also affect instant digital sales attached to purchases for physical albums delivered at a later date. Effective immediately, Billboard will no longer approve any new album/ticket bundle offers; moving forward albums will only be counted if promoted as an à la carte add-on sale to a ticket purchase. For existing, approved offers with an album released on or before Oct. 8, 2020: Redemptions (sales) generated by offer will be accepted for duration of the tour...
