International
Spain Arrests 80 In Riots Over Rapper Pablo Hasel’s Jailing
But potentially deepening the tension, court authorities in the northeastern Catalonia region announced that Hasél lost a recent appeal and is looking at an additional prison sentence of 2 1/2 years for obstructing justice and assault in 2017. The sentence can be appealed again before the country’s Supreme Court. Like the two previous nights, the protests began Thursday with large gatherings in several cities that were, at first, mostly peaceful. In Catalonia’s regional capital, Barcelona, hundreds sang songs, rapped and shouted “Pablo Hasél, freedom!” and “Spanish media, manipulators!” at a central square before dozens broke off the main group to set alight a barricade of trash containers and a construction skip that blocked a main city artery, hurling stones, bottles an...
Music Victoria Appoints Simone Schinkel as CEO
Additionally, she holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in technical production, is an alumni of the Australia Council’s Emerging Leaders Development Program and co-convenor of the Arts Industry Council of Victoria. Schinkel is based in Melbourne, which has a reputation as a world-class music city and is arguably the live heartbeat of Australia. That was pre-COVID. Melbourne has endured several setbacks during the pandemic and has only just emerged from a snap five-day lockdown, a so-called circuit-breaker intended to halt community transmissions of new, highly contagious variants of the coronavirus. “In Simone we have found the person to lead our organization and sector through its next critical stage,” comments Sally Howland, chair of Music Victoria. “CO...
Facebook Blocks News Viewing, Sharing In Australia
“It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter,” Easton added. The company’s decision to take the nuclear option and block news access and sharing has already led to a storm of criticism from the emergency services in Australia who rely on the social media platform to relay vital information on wildfires, floods, extreme weather and COVID-19 among other local interest and public safety issues. The Australian government slammed Facebook for what is a landmark local ban on viewing and sharing news. “Facebook was wrong. Facebook’s actions were unnecessary, they were heavy-handed and they w...
It’s a Growth Story: What’s Behind UMG’s Accelerated IPO Plans?
Vivendi could earn about 9 billion euros ($10.9 billion) from the IPO, if it maintains majority ownership by unloading just just under 30% of UMG at the same 30 billion euros ($36.3 billion) valuation used last year when it sold a 20% stake to a consortium led by Chinese tech giant Tencent Corp. At that head-turning 36-times EBTIDA valuation, a multiple often seen in fast-growing tech companies, Tencent “made people take a step back and look at the valuations of music companies,” says Michael Poster, the head of Michelman & Robinson’s corporate and securities department. That’s not an unreasonable valuation: a rapidly-growing streaming market, believed by Goldman Sachs to reach 1.15 billion subscribers...
BTS Collaborate With Japanese Band Back Number For New Movie Theme ‘Film Out’
Back Number have never written a song for another artist before, and Shimizu shared in a press release that his exchange with BTS — in particular Jungkook, who suggested a new melody based on the demo Shimizu sent — was an exciting experience. “I had some reservations because I’d never written a song that someone else besides myself would sing,” Shimizu said. “But I’m happy that we’ve completed a very lyrical, yet powerful track thanks to our experienced staff, our co-arranger UTA’s efforts, some exciting exchanges with Jungkook, and the personal qualities and power of expression each of the BTS members have.” Previously, BTS’s “Don’t Leave Me” was featured as the theme of the Japanese TV drama Signal, a remake of a South Korean series by the same name, starring Kentaro Sakaguc...
Courtney Barnett, Midnight Oil & More Sign Open Letter Calling For Australian Government Support
The likes of Paul Kelly, Bernard Fanning, Courtney Barnett, Missy Higgins, Stella Donnelly, Lime Cordiale, The Presets and Midnight Oil have signed the document. In it, they say extending JobKeeper or providing direct industry support to thousands of vulnerable workers will keep the show on the road. “This doesn’t just make cultural sense, it makes economic sense,” the message continues. The numbers tell part of the story. The arts and entertainment sector contributes around A$15 billion ($11 billion) per year in GDP, employing close to 200,000 highly-skilled Australians, the open letter continues. Also, Australia Institute research has found that for every million dollars in revenue, arts and entertainment produce nine jobs while the construction industry only creates around one. Australi...
Vivendi Planning to Move Forward With UMG IPO This Year
The idea is to avoid the so-called “conglomerate discount,” under which a company could be valued by the market as less than the sum of its parts — especially by investors looking for more direct exposure to the music sector at a time when streaming is fueling growth and optimism. “This plan is the result of the joint efforts in recent years by the Vivendi and the Universal Music Group, under the leadership of Sir Lucian Grainge, to further the company’s position as the music industry’s undisputed leader,” Vivendi said in a letter about the move that was shared internally at Universal by Grainge, the company’s chairman and CEO. “Recently the successful opening of UMG’s share capital to an international consortium led by Tencent has confirmed its attractiveness with strategic investor...
Red Cross: Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region ‘largely inaccessible’
Ethiopia’s embattled northern region of Tigray remains largely inaccessible, the International Red Cross said Wednesday. The situation has led to starvation deaths, the organization said. “Eighty percent of the Tigray is unreachable at this particular time,” president of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, Abera Tola, told a press conference. “People in Tigray need everything: food and food items, water and sanitation, medical supplies, and mobile clinics. And humanitarian organizations need access to Tigray to reach the most vulnerable. And this is a call to hold the parties involved: give us safe and unhindered access, respect our teams, respect the medical doctors, respect the health facilities, respect the health workers”, said Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of...
Foo Fighters’ ‘Medicine at Midnight’ Opens Huge Lead In U.K. Chart Race
The dream for No. 5 is very much alive for Foo Fighters, as the rockers take a massive lead in the U.K. chart race with Medicine at Midnight (Columbia). The Foos’ latest studio album dropped last Friday (Feb. 5), and by midweek it’s outselling the rest of the U.K. Top 10 combined, according to the Official Charts Company Medicine has chalked up the most physical and digital sales in the week so far, to lead the Official Chart Update. If it keeps its momentum, it’ll be the Foos’ fifth No. 1 in the U.K., following One By One (2002), Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007), Wasting Light (2011) and Concrete & Gold (2017). You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Ge...
The Kid Laroi Sets Australian Chart Record
F*ck Love (Savage) debuted at No. 3 in August 2020 under its original title, F*ck Love, and returned to that peak position in November after the release of the deluxe edition, F*ck Love (Savage). “Huge congratulations to The Kid Laroi on hitting the top of the ARIA Albums Chart,” comments ARIA’s newly appointed CEO, Annabelle Herd. “This is an incredible feat for an artist of any age and, with audiences around the world embracing his music, it is obviously just the beginning.” The mixtape climbs to the top for the first time in its 28th week on the chart. Also, The Kid Laroi (real name Charlton Howard) becomes the second male indigenous solo artist to top the chart after Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu did so in April 2018 with his posthumous release Djarimirri (Child Of The Rainbow). The...
Celeste Snags U.K. No. 1 With ‘Not Your Muse’
With her hot start, Celeste becomes the first British female artist to top the tally with their debut album in more than five years, since Jess Glynne’s I Cry When I Laugh in November 2015. Not Your Muse leads an all-new Top 4. Celeste’s debut holds off Money Can’t Buy Happiness (Since 93), the second album from London rapper Fredo. It’s new at No. 2 and is the U.K.’s most-streamed album of the week. Also new is singer, songwriter and poet Arlo Parks’ first LP Collapsed In Sunbeams (Transgressive), which starts at No. 3, while Steven Wilson’s The Future Bites (SW Records) opens at No. 4. Harry Styles completes the Top 5 with Fine Line (Columbia), up 6-5. U.K. rapper Chip bags a Top 10 entry with his new mixtape Snakes & Ladders, new at No 7, while post-punk outfit Goat Girl ...
Nigerian government berates Amnesty International over call for service chiefs’ prosecution
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has berated the Amnesty International (AI) over its call for the arrest and prosecution of former Service Chiefs AI had in its recent report, called for the arrest and prosecution of the service chiefs at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged human rights violation in the prosecution of war against terror in the North-East region. Speaking on “Politics Nationwide,” a Radio Nigeria programme monitored by newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, Mohammed said the global human rights protection organisation should “shut up because it had no proof of crimes committed by the Nigerian military’’. He said the country was fighting an unconventional war with insurgency that had no rule of engagement, adding that this was a double jeopard...
