music blog
HYBE Revenue Jumps 58% to $1.1B in 2021 Following Ithaca Acquisition
HYBE, the home of BTS, blew past US $1 billion in revenue for the first time in 2021 thanks to the South Korean entertainment company’s acquisition of Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. Formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment, HYBE posted revenue of $1.06 billion, up by 58% from 2020 and 114% greater than 2019. At the same time, operating profit lifted to $158 million, up 30.8% from the prior-year period. Ithaca Holdings helped HYBE’s album sales grow about 110% in 2021. Sales of HYBE’s Korean artists grew 18% to 15.1 million (in South Korea only). Ithaca Holdings contributed 7.5 million album equivalent units by SB Projects artists, mostly from Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, and another 4.8 million album equivalent units from Big Machine (HYBE’s earnings release gave U.S. sales only...
LA Phil Conductor Gustavo Dudamel Is the Subject of New Documentary ‘¡Viva Maestro!’: Exclusive Trailer
¡Viva Maestro!, a documentary on Gustavo Dudamel, follows the celebrated Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conductor around the world on a tour filled with obstacles, but also with the uniting spirit of music. Directed by Ted Braun, Greenwich Entertainment’s ¡Viva Maestro! chronicles Dudamel’s travels as he works with orchestras and young musicians in Los Angeles, Berlin, Mexico City, Hamburg, Vienna and Santiago, but also focuses on the 2017 protests in his native Venezuela and how that strife only deepens his belief in the power of music. Explore See latest videos, charts and news In the exclusive trailer below, Dudamel’s despair is evident as he watches Venezuela collapse. “My country is following a dangerous path that may lead us inevitably to the betrayal of our deepest national...
Feist Announces US Debut of MULTITUDES Live Residency
Feist has announced the US debut of her new live residency MULTITUDES. Spanning just nine dates, MULTITUDES will begin with two nights at Denver’s Buell Theatre on April 21st and 22nd. After that, she’ll play two-night stands in Los Angeles and Seattle, before wrapping up with a three-night stint at Stanford, California’s Memorial Auditorium in early May. The limited capacity, in-the-round production was developed by the Canadian singer-songwriter with designer Rob Sinclair, who has worked with David Byrne, Peter Gabriel, and Tame Impala. Related Video MULTITUDES features all new music written and performed Feist, but she encourages audience participation. As a press release notes, MULTITUDES “creates an intimate, radically communal, and topsy-turvy production that muddies the roles betwee...
Halestorm Announce Spring 2022 US Tour with Stone Temple Pilots, Mammoth WVH, and Black Stone Cherry
Halestorm have announced a headlining Spring 2022 US tour in support of their upcoming album, Back From the Dead. They’ll be joined on the road by Stone Temple Pilots, Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH, and Black Stone Cherry on select dates. The brief outing kicks off May 10th in Billings, Montana, and circles back to Missoula, Montana, for a tour-closing May 30th show. Tickets go on sale beginning Friday (March 4th) via Ticketmaster, with pre-sales beginning as early as today (March 1st). The bill offers further evidence of just how big Halestorm have become, with frontwoman Lzzy Hale and company topping a lineup that includes rock veterans Stone Temple Pilots. Late last year and for a few shows at the beginning of this year, Halestorm co-headlined a US arena tour with Evanescence. Advert...
Sam Elliott Complains About “Homosexuality” in “Piece of Shit” Movie The Power of the Dog
Sam Elliott has spent half his acting career perched on top of a horse, and he seems to now consider himself an expert on all things cowboy. In a new interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, the star of 1883 called the Oscar-nominated film The Power of the Dog a “piece of shit” while complaining about all the “allusions of homosexuality.” Jane Campion’s deconstructed Western stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil Burbank, a self-styled macho man whose insistence on presenting himself in the most manly way possible hides deep insecurities about his sexual identity. When Maron asked Elliott what he thought of the film, the 77-year-old responded, “You want to talk about that piece of shit?” “Where’s the Western in this Western?” Elliott asked. “I mean, Cumber...
My Idea Share Bittersweet Single “Crutch”: Stream
Last month, Palberta’s Lily Koningsberg and Water from Your Eyes’ Nate Amos announced the formation of their new duo, My Idea. Before their debut album CRY MFER comes out on April 22nd, the duo have shared another single called “Crutch.” Though the members of My Idea only got to know each other in 2020, the pair encouraged each other to quit drinking after they finished their album. “Crutch” documents them encroaching on that breaking point: “Truth is I really miss your tough/ And I’m hanging on ’cause you’re my crutch,” Koningsberg sings, seeming to argue that the people we meet can become just as addictive as substances. “‘Crutch’ was written at a time when both of our personal lives had begun to collapse around us,” Koningsberg and Amos said in a statement. “Outside influences began to ...
HALESTORM Announces May 2022 U.S. Tour; BLABBERMOUTH.NET Presale
Grammy-winning hard rock band HALESTORM, which will release its fifth studio album, “Back From The Dead”, on May 6, today announced new U.S. headline dates in May, their first U.S. shows since the conclusion of their co-headline dates with EVANESCENCE in January. Kicking off May 10 in Billings, Montana, and running through May 30 in Missoula, the dates, which include festival stops at St. Louis’s Point Fest on May 21 and Daytona Beach’s Welcome To Rockville on May 22, will include various openers, including rock icons STONE TEMPLE PILOTS; MAMMOTH WVH, the hard rock band fronted by Wolfgang Van Halen; and Southern rock staples BLACK STONE CHERRY. A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Tuesday, March 1 at 1:00 p.m. local time and end on Wednesday, March 2 at...
IRON MAIDEN, KISS, DEFTONES, FOO FIGHTERS, NINE INCH NAILS Part Of LIVE NATION’s 2022 ‘Lawn Pass’ Promotion
Live Nation has announced that Lawn Pass will be available at 30 venues for the 2022 summer concert season, which is on pace to be one of the biggest in history. With a Lawn Pass, fans can attend concerts at their local amphitheater music venue all summer long, including select sold out shows. A Lawn Pass can be purchased for just $199 (plus fees) per venue, and provides access to shows at that specific venue all summer long. Each venue will have a limited number of Lawn Passes available. Passes will go on sale starting Tuesday, March 1 at 10 a.m. PT at LawnPass.LiveNation.com, while supplies last. To purchase the pass, fans can visit the link above and use the dropdown menu to select their desired amphitheater. Each Lawn Pass purchaser will receive a custom personalized credential with th...
JONATHAN CAIN Says NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN’s Addition To JOURNEY’s Touring Lineup ‘Didn’t Quite Pan Out’
JOURNEY kicked off its U.S. “Freedom” tour on February 22 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The band’s current touring lineup features bassist Todd Jensen, a veteran musician who has played for various artists, including the bands SEQUEL, HARDLINE and HARLOW, as well as David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Perry, Alice Cooper and Paul Rodgers. Also part of JOURNEY‘s current incarnation is returning drummer Deen Castronovo, who shared the drum duties in the band last year with Narada Michael Walden. Walden, bassist Randy Jackson and keyboardist/backing singer Jason Derlatka all joined JOURNEY in 2020 following the band’s acrimonious split with drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory. Jackson — who previously played with JOURNEY during the mid-1980s — was forced ...
QUEENSRŸCHE Drummer SCOTT ROCKENFIELD Blasts ‘Subcontractor’ TODD LA TORRE, Calls Out GEOFF TATE For ‘Crazy Statements’
QUEENSRŸCHE‘s estranged drummer Scott Rockenfield has blasted the band’s frontman of the past decade, Todd La Torre, saying that the singer’s opinions and comments do not represent the beliefs and viewpoints of any of the QUEENSRŸCHE companies and legal entities. Earlier today, Rockenfield took to his personal Facebook page to write: “just a little bit for clarity here… Subject: Todd La Torre (subcontractor – QUEENSRŸCHE) Topic: For the record let it be known that ‘any and all opinions, viewpoints, statements, and/or comments etc etc, that continue to be presented by Mr La Torre (whether it be past/present and/or future) are in no way to be considered as representing the expressed beliefs, opinions, and/or viewpoints of any of the QUEENSRŸCHE brand...
Unreleased ‘Jeen-Yuhs’ Clip Shows Kanye West Arguing About the Creative Direction of “Slow Jamz”
TIME recently posted an unreleased clip of Kanye West fighting for creative control over the music video direction of his Twista and Jamie Foxx collaborative track “Slow Jamz.” According to the publication, the footage was reportedly cut from Netflix‘s final version of the Jeen-Yuhs documentary. The clip takes place during the “Slow Jamz” video shoot back in 2004 where at the time, Ye had just received his first major success as a solo artist with “Through the Wire.” The clip showed that the shoot proved to be more torturous and uncovered the creative differences and logistical problems that plagued the making of the video. The clip shows West evidently frustrated as he tries to explain his creative vision, “I’m gonna keep repeating myself over and over and over again. Y’all are forcing me...
Rolling Loud Miami 2022 Announced: Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Future, More
Rolling Loud Miami has announced its 2022 festival lineup. Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, and Future will headline, with sets from Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, Baby Keem, Lil Baby, Gunna, Lil Durk, Saweetie, City Girls, Gucci Mane, Three 6 Mafia, Flo Milli, A$AP Ferg, and more. Check out the full roster on the poster below. The 2022 edition of the annual fest will return to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, taking place July 22-24. Last year’s headliners were Travis Scott, A$AP Rocky, and Post Malone—the same set from the postponed 2020 festival. Kendrick recently performed as part of the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Kanye recently rolled out his new album Donda 2, which was made in collaboration with Future. Last year’s Rolling Loud Miami was the scene of multiple controversies. One ...
