NEWS
Amazon Music Drops HD Tier to $9.99, Shaking Up Hi-Fi Streaming Market
Amazon’s success with its HD service, which has grown 100% year-over-year, has pushed Spotify to announce a Hi-Fi tier as well, with rumors of an Apple Music Hi-Fi plan possibly also priced at $9.99 a month. For years, the music industry was focused on using high-fidelity audio streaming as a means to raise the average revenue per user with higher-priced subscriptions. That would mean bigger payouts for rights holders and the streaming services. But with Amazon, Spotify, and Apple all getting in on the high-fidelity push, the labels have become more amenable to lowering the price of high-fidelity tiers in the hopes of increasing the overall number of subscribers across the industry. “The other services are coming around to the fact that this is really important.” Boom says. “And that ...
Paramore Raise $45K For Nashville’s Exit/In Club With ‘Tiny Hot Topic B’ Shirt
The goal, owners said, is to keep the venue independent. “It must remain independent to best serve Nashville’s creative working class,” they added. After launching a GoFundMe to keep the doors to the 50-year-old club open — blowing past the $200,000 goal by nearly $70,000 — the Cobbs said that if the purchase is not successful, the funds will be donated to Music Venues Alliance Nashville to #Keep615Live and the National Independent Venue Association. Hotel developer AJ Capital has been facing off with Nashville politicians and musicians who have been protesting the company’s acquisition of the building housing the Exit/In. In their note, the Cobbs said that AJ Capital has publicly stated their intent to keep the venue open, “but have no track recor...
Apple Music Announces Hi-Fi Streaming at No Additional Cost
“Apple Music is making its biggest advancement ever in sound quality,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats said in a statement. “Listening to a song in Dolby Atmos is like magic. The music comes from all around you and sounds incredible. Now we are bringing this truly innovative and immersive experience to our listeners with music from their favorite artists like J Balvin, Gustavo Dudamel, Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Kacey Musgraves, The Weeknd, and so many more. Subscribers will also be able to listen to their music in the highest audio quality with Lossless Audio. Apple Music as we know it is about to change forever.” Apple Music is also launching spatial audio (with support from Dolby Atmos) for music, which will allow artists to re...
Urban One Founder Cathy Hughes Discusses The Story Behind DMX’s Final Interview
Source: TV One / TV One Uncensored On March 16, TV One’s Uncensored featured what is now the last formal interview of late, great rapper Earl “DMX” Simmons. TV One is owned by Urban One, whose founder Cathy Hughes is who pushed the button on making the episode come to the television as soon as possible in the wake of Dark Man X’s untimely passing. The moving episode, which also featured commentary from X’s ex-wife Tasheera Simmons, The Lox rapper Styles P, his mother and more, was years in the making. Five of them, actually. Explains Ms. Hughes (watch above), “We asked him the first year, he said ‘No.’ We asked him the second year, he said ‘No.’ Third year…’No.’ Fourth year, we didn’t ask him. Fifth year, he called us. Three weeks before he died. And he said, ‘Were we still interested?’ an...
Rag’n’Bone Man Blasts to No. 1 In U.K. With ‘Life By Misadventure’
It’s the second leader in a row for the multiple Brit Award-winning artists, following his debut 2017 effort Human, which has shifted more than over 1 million chart sales in this U.K. and returns the Top 40 at No. 35. Life By Misadventure enjoyed a lift following Rag’n’Bone Man’s appearance at the BRITs last Tuesday, to perform “Anywhere Away From Here” with Pink and the Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir. Life leads an all-new Top 5 on the current albums chart, ahead of Michael Ball’s We Are More Than One, Dodie’s Build A Problem, Squid’s Bright Green Field and Van Morrison’s Latest Record Project Volume 1, respectively. Also new to this week’s survey is Weezer’s rock-riff album Van Weezer at 30. It’s the U.S. rockers’ first Top 40 album in 13 years. Meanwhile New Order’s live album...
J. Cole Eyes Three Strong Starts on U.K. Singles Chart
J. Cole could make a big dent this week on the U.K. singles chart, with three tracks set for high entries. On the Official Chart Company’s First Look survey, which ranks the popularity of singles after the first weekend’s sales and streaming activity, Cole has the highest new entries with “9 5 . S O U T H” at No. 9, “M Y . L I F E” featuring 21 Savage & Morray at No. 10, and “A M A R I” at No. 11. The trio of tunes are all lifted from the North Carolinian hip-hop star’s latest album The Off-Season, which includes “I N T E R L U D E, the lead single which hit No. 25 on last week’s U.K. chart. 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. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and ma...
Eric Clapton Decries Pandemic Response, Vaccine Safety in Angry Letter
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-17T00:25:38+00:00“>May 16, 2021 | 8:25pm ET Eric Clapton has penned an angry missive decrying the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as pro-vaccine “propaganda” which he says overstates safety and effectiveness. As Rolling Stone points out, Clapton shared his thoughts in a letter to anti-lockdown activist Robin Monotti Graziadei, who subsequently posted it to Telegram. In questioning the British government’s response to the pandemic, Clapton said he “looked for heroes in the house.” He proceeded to name-check several COVID conspiracy theorists and anti-lockdown advocates, including fellow musician Van Morrison, who himself decried socially-distanced concerts as ...
MC Jin ft. Wyclef “Stop The Hatred,” Migos “Straightenin” & More | Daily Visuals 5.14.21
HipHopWired Featured Video Ever since the Racist-In-Chief began placing the blame of the pandemic on the Asian community, hate crimes against innocent Asian American’s skyrocketed and continues to happen to this day. Touching on the subject and calling for a halt to the hate, OG Asian rapper, MC Jin links up with Wyclef for the visuals to “Stop The Hatred.” Sitting in a room surrounded with statues and ornaments representative of his Asian heritage, Jin shuts down stereotypes while showcasing Asian culture and speaks on the struggle they experience in the U.S. Stop the Asian hate, y’all. Back in the A the Migos reunite after a lengthy hiatus for their clip to “Straightenin” where the three politic in a parking lot and show off some exotic foreign automobiles you can only dream of riding in...
Ricky Schroder Has Meltdown Outside of Costco Over Mask Mandate
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-16T18:20:20+00:00“>May 16, 2021 | 2:20pm ET Ricky Schroder, the former Silver Spoons child star-turned-bail bondsman for Kyle Rittenhouse, filmed himself ranting and raving outside of a California Costco over the weekend after being denied entry for refusing to wear a mask. Though the CDC recently lifted federal guidelines for mandatory mask wearing, face covering mandates remain in place at the state, local, and business levels. As such, when a bare-faced Schroder turned up at a Los Angeles-area Costco on Saturday, he was promptly denied entry. Schroder proceeded to film himself harassing a store supervisor named Jason, questioning why Jason allowed himself to be ruled by “kings...
Moneybagg Yo’s ‘A Gangsta’s Pain’ Returns to No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart
A Gangsta’s Pain’s 61,000 units earned are nearly all from streaming activity, as SEA units comprise 60,000 of its total for the week. Further, the album’s 61,000 units is the second-lowest total for a weekly No. 1 album in 2021. Only Taylor Swift’s Evermore has posted a smaller week at No. 1 this year, when it returned to the top for a third nonconsecutive week on the chart dated Jan. 16 with 56,000 units (earned in the week ending Jan. 7). Zero albums debut in the top 10 on the new Billboard 200 — the first time that’s happened since the March 13-dated chart. Morgan Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album rises 3-2 with 52,000 equivalent album units earned (down 3%), DJ Khaled’s Khaled Khaled dips 1-3 in its second week with 46,000 units (down 51%), and Justin Bieber’s fo...
Fans Choose Nicki Minaj’s ‘Beam Me Up Scotty’ Mixtape as This Week’s Favorite New Music
Spanning 23 songs and almost 80 minutes from start to finish, Scotty features new tracks “Seeing Green” featuring Drake and Lil Wayne, “Fractions,” and “Crocodile Tears (Remix)” with Skillibeng. Minaj also goes full-retro for the compilation’s revamped Star Trek-themed artwork. The Trinidad-born star’s last studio album was 2018’s Queen, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. Placing a close second on the past week’s tally with 31% of the vote was Rodrigo’s new pop-punk single “Good 4 U,” which will be featured on her highly anticipated debut album, Sour, due out on May 21 through Geffen Records. The 18-year-old singer, who is featured on Billboard‘s latest cover, broke through earlier this year with her hit breakup ballad “Drivers ...
Kim Kardashian Buys Janet Jackson’s ‘If’ Music Video Outfit for $25K at Auction
Jackson echoed Kardashian’s excitement in an Instagram Story on her own account, writing back to her: “Thank u so much @kimkardashian! I hope ‘IF’ gives u as much pleasure as it did me.” The “Iconic Treasures From the Legendary Career and Life of Janet Jackson” auction was held through Sunday (May 16), Jackson’s 55th birthday. The star partnered with Julien’s Auctions to sell more than 1,000 items — gems from her career as well as personal treasures. The auction took place in Beverly Hills, California, and was shown on Julien’s website. Proceeds were set to go to Compassion International, an organization that helps children escape poverty. See Kardashian’s post announcing her purchase of the coveted Janet Jackson memorabilia on Ins...
