music blog
Splice’s New AI-Powered Musical Sketch Pad Could Upend the Sound Discovery Process
Discovering sounds on Splice will never be the same. Splice’s new AI-powered technology, CoSo, is completely changing how music producers and sound designers discover and harness audio. Designed to provide creatives with a simple, effective way to discover new sounds for their work, the intelligent surface for music creation was developed by Splice’s in-house ML&Audio Science Innovation Team. CoSo is straightforward to use. Since it pairs Complementary Sounds technology with Splice’s massive sounds catalog, there are billions of possible tonal combinations for producers to discover. To get started, users can choose a “style” before CoSo spits out a unique “stack” of loops. Similarly to Tinder, users can swipe right for a new sound, left t...
Black Star Has ‘No Fear of Time’ in First Album in Over 20 Years
Black Star has officially released their first studio album in almost 24 years, No Fear of Time. Exclusively available on Luminary, the new project features production from Madlib and nine new tracks of yasiin bey and Talib Kweli, along with guest appearances from Yummy Bingham on the title track and Black Thought on the closer “Freequency.” bey previously shared in a statement, “What you will continue to get out of us is a sincere expression. It’s who we really are, what we’re really responding to, and what’s really important to us.” Kweli added, “This is very similar to how we did the first album. But the first album, there were no mobile studios. This entire album, we have not set foot in one recording studio. It’s all been done in hotel rooms and backstage at Dave Chappelle shows.” Kwe...
BTS, Justin Bieber Concerts Boost HYBE’s Quarterly Earnings
Korean music company HYBE, home to K-pop superstars BTS, posted revenue of 285 billion KRW ($226 million) in the first quarter of 2022, the company announced Tuesday (May 3). The result — which marks a nearly 60% revenue increase year over year but a decrease of 37.8% from last quarter — followed a record-breaking year for HYBE in 2021, when the company surpassed $1 billion in revenue for the first time thanks to its acquisition of Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. The Q1 results were bolstered by a return to large-scale live events, including BTS’ Permission to Dance shows in Seoul in March, which drew over 45,000 fans in person. An additional 1.4 million fans viewed the livestream, which smashed box office records; the March 12 screening alone grossed $6.9 million in North America, making...
The Best Last-Minute Mother’s Day Gifts for Every Kind of Budget
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Mother’s Day is less than a week away, but there’s no need to panic. You still have plenty of time to find a great gift. To make your life a bit easier, we took the liberty of curating a list of more than a dozen of the best, last-minute gifts to buy for Mother’s Day. No matter what your budget might look like, you’re sure to find something suitable on the list. The items listed below are available at Amazon (free delivery for Prime members) as well as in-store pickup via Target, Walmart and other retailers. For more Mother’s Day recommendations, see our rou...
The Kid Laroi, Tones And I Rule 2022 APRA Awards
With a hattrick of wins, The Kid Laroi led from start to finish as the APRA Music Awards returned to Melbourne on Tuesday night (May 3). The teenage superstar has rolled in a purple patch the likes of which few artists see. Now based in Los Angeles, the Sydney-raised artist led the singles and albums charts in the U.S. and Australia in 2021, and, along the way, logged a record-setting stay at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Stay,” his collaboration with Justin Bieber. At the 2022 APRAs, Laroi nabbed the night’s top prize and the final category of the night, song of the year, and accepted the donut-shaped award by way of a live zoom from his studio in Los Angeles. Earlier, Laroi (real name Charlton Howard) scored most performed hip-hop / rap work for “Without You” and the coveted ...
Bonobo Announces North America Tour for Fall 2022
Bonobo is hitting the road. Today, the musician born Simon Green has announced a 20-date full band tour across North America in Fall 2022. The shows will be in support of Fragments, Bonobo’s album from January. Bonobo will kick things off with a DJ set at Montreal’s Piknic Electronique on September 10th before starting the full band shows in Toronto on the 19th. He’ll hit major cities across Canada and the US, including Montreal, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, and Las Vegas, before ending things off on a high note at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Pre-sale begins this Thursday, May 5th at 11:00 a.m. local time (use code FINALE), with general sale beginning the 6th at 11:00 a.m. local time; head over to Ticketmaster for tickets. See Bonobo’s full schedule below. Adv...
Larry David Doesn’t Know Why He Hasn’t Been Cancelled Yet
This article is part of our coverage of the 2022 Netflix Is a Joke: The Festival. During an era of “wokescolds” on the left and free speech panic from the right, comedian-actor Larry David remains the same. It’s been 20 years since the first episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm aired, and David’s semi-fictional persona of a man with zero social awareness or ability to learn from his mistakes still draws an audience in the far more tense political climate of 2022. In fact, the long-running HBO series was recently renewed for a 12th season. In a conversation with fellow Curb alum Robert B. Weide at Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival in Los Angeles, the 74-year old comedian was asked to explain, basically, why his show still exists. “How have you not been cancelled? How do you get away with this?” as...
Jessica Biel Can’t Help Hulu’s Confused Candy Coalesce: Review
The Pitch: The story of Candy Montgomery is almost too gruesome and eerily-timed to feel true: On Friday, the 13th, one June in 1980, a pleasant, well-liked suburban housewife in a bucolic northeastern Texas town went over to her friend and neighbor Betty Gore’s house, and murdered her with an axe. She slashed her 41 times, 40 of them while her heart was still beating. Then, she took a shower in Betty’s home to clean off the blood, and drove back home to continue her day like nothing had happened… with Betty’s newborn infant crying in her dead mother’s home for thirteen hours before the body was found. Even crazier than that? Candy would end up being found not guilty. Naturally, it’s the kind of lurid true-crime story that would spawn not one, but two miniseries in our murde...
Joan Jett Hits Back at “Tough Guy” Ted Nugent: “This is the Guy Who Shit His Pants”
Back in January, racist, conspiratorial COVID-19 denier Ted Nugent took to YouTube to criticize Rolling Stone’s [checks notes] 19-year-old 100 Greatest Guitarists list, where he particularly had a bone to pick with the inclusion of Joan Jett. NME brought Nugent’s one-sided beef to Jett’s attention, who, of course, took his abominable comments in stride. In his video tirade, Nugent said “You have to have shit for brains and you have to be a soulless, soulless prick to put Joan Jett [on the list],” before throwing similar shade to (non-white, non-male) celebrated artists like Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Grandmaster Flash and Patti Smith. When NME told Jett that Nugent didn’t believe she should be on the Greatest Guitarists lists, she shrugged, “Neither should he.” Advertisement Relate...
Tyler, the Creator Earns 13 New Gold and Platinum RIAA Certifications
Tyler, the Creator is bringing home a total of 13 new gold and platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), adding to the previous 10 plaques he received about a week prior. The RIAA website confirmed that the artist acquired nine gold certifications for the tracks “Potato Salad” with A$AP Rocky, “OKRA,” “F*cking Young/Perfect” with Charlie Wilson, Chaz Bundick, Syd and Kali Uchis, “IFHY” with Pharrell, “Foreword” with Rex Orange County, “Where This Flower Blooms” with Frank Ocean, “Glitter,” “Domo23” and “Smuckers” with Lil Wayne and Kanye West, one gold certifications for the album WOLF and three platinum certifications for the Flower Boy cuts “911/Mr. Lonely” with Steve Lacy and Frank Ocean, “Boredom” with Rex Orange County and Anna of the North and...
Drake Signs Expansive Deal With Universal Music Group That Could Be Worth Around $400 Million USD
Drake has signed a new deal with Universal Music Group covering “multiple creative lanes and revenue streams.” Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge confirmed the news during the label’s Q1 earnings call, stating that The Boy’s wide-ranging deal includes recordings, publishing, merchandise and visual media projects. Labelled by the music executive as “expanded portfolios,” Variety reports that an insider called the deal “LeBron-sized” and could be priced at around or higher than $360 million USD after Drizzy hinted at the signing with the bar “Three-sixty upfront, it all comes full circle,” which appears on the Scary Hours 2 cut “Lemon Pepper Freestyle.” A 2021 report from UBS Research named Drake as one of Universal Music Group’s 2021 “re-signings”; the label supposedly sp...
‘Yo! MTV Raps’ Reboot To Air on Paramount Plus
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Paramaount Plus / ViacomCBS The pioneering Hip-Hop program Yo! MTV Raps is making a comeback to television, and Paramount Plus will be its new home. According to reports, the landmark television program will be revived on the streaming platform Paramount Plus with new hosts. Yo! MTV Raps was a pivotal influence in the rise of rap music among the greater public, and the revival announced by the platform looks to tap into that energy through a “comprehensive deep dive into the current state of hip hop”. The new hosts will be DJ Diamond Kuts and the battle rapper Conceited, and the format will contain interviews in addition to live performances and ciphers. The direction of the show looks to focus on more intimate in-studio experiences with the artists and g...
