NEWS
First Spin: The Week’s Best New Dance Tracks From Lost Frequencies, Mat Zo & More
New Music Friday is intense. Hundreds of songs drop from artists around the world, and you’re supposed to somehow find the best ones. It’s fun work, but it’s time-consuming — so we at Billboard Dance want to give you a hand. Each week, we sift through the streams and dig in the digital crates to present the absolute must-hears from the wide breadth of jams. This week saw several high-profile releases, with Ms. Kylie Minogue gracing our ear-space with “Say Something,” the first single from her forthcoming Disco LP, Howling releasing their excellent sophomore LP Colure, DJ Shub dropping knowledge and beats with his latest single “The Social,” Porter Robinson remixing himself, dance super-group Bronson dropping its third single and the EDM ...
Congress Introduces Another Bill to Save Independent Music Venues
The ENCORES Act would provide relief in the form of tax credits on ticket refunds. A new bill in the House Representatives aims to keep struggling independent music venues afloat during the ongoing pandemic. Introduced Thursday by Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Mike Kelly (R-PA), the Entertainments New Credit Opportunity for Relief & Economic Sustainability (ENCORES) Act would allow venues to recoup some of the losses they have experienced from issuing ticket refunds for canceled events by providing a tax credit for 50% of the value of those refunded tickets. To qualify under the proposed legislation, venues must be in the business of promoting, producing or managing live concerts, comedy shows, sporting events and live theatrical productions and have 500 or fewer employees. They must ...
Metallica & My Chemical Romance to Headline Rescheduled Aftershock Festival in 2021
Aftershock Festival 2020, originally scheduled for Oct. 9-11 in Sacramento’s Discovery Park, has been pushed back to Oct. 7-10, 2021, with Metallica and My Chemical Romance headlining. Danny Wimmer Presents, the music festival production and promotion company in charge of Aftershock, added a fourth night in partnership with Jack Daniels to the 2021 edition of the massive West Coast rock festival. “After all the harm caused by COVID-19, there is nothing that we wanted more than to be celebrating Aftershock with you this October at Discovery Park for what was going to be a monumental weekend,” the DWP statement read. “We, the artists, and Sacramento County all thought we had a shot at being the first post-COVID festival to happen. That really would have been incr...
Snoop Dogg & DMX’s ‘Verzuz’ Battle Reached the Highest Level Yet, Just Look at the Numbers
Snoop Dogg and DMX duked it out in the studio Wednesday night (July 22) for their latest Verzuz “battle of the dogs” while maintaining the highest amount of respect for one another. But the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop titans reached a whole new level on their Verzuz stats. The night received 1.75 billion impressions across the internet while breaking Apple Music’s all-time livestream record with more than 600,000 concurrent viewers and a total of more than 1.4 million fans tuning in. Just this week, Apple Music announced its exclusive partnership with Verzuz in simulcasting the battles on both Apple Music and Beats 1 while offering on-demand streaming. “THANK YOU to everyone who tuned in to watch @DMX and @SnoopDogg celebrate each other. We...
The National’s Aaron Dessner on Finding ‘Magic’ Chemistry With Taylor Swift
The National’s Aaron Dessner, who co-wrote and/or produced 11 of 16 tracks on Taylor Swift’s folklore, detailed the “magic” collaborative chemistry that helped spark her newly issued eighth LP. “It was a very surreal moment when she first contacted me, because we’d met before, twice in the past, mutual kind of admiration,” Dessner told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I knew she was a fan and we’ve always been fans of hers. But it was sort of like she reached out and said, ‘Would you ever be able to… or be interested in working on songs together?’ And I was like, ‘Sure. Like, wow.’ And then we just started to bounce around ideas.’ The musician, who had already been writing a lot of music during the COVID-19 lockdown, quickly sent Swift a folder full of ideas. “It just kind of was crazy instant ch...
Leading VR Company Redpill Announces Three New Livestream Music Performances
As part of their continued efforts to alchemize the worlds of live music and virtual reality, leading VR company Redpill has announced three new music livestreaming events in partnership with Renaissance Records. The livestream series, called “Renaissance Engage,” will feature performances by Patrice Bäumel, Franky Wah, and Yotto. They will be funneling bespoke, trailblazing DJ sets from their homes straight to viewers’ devices. Viewers will also be able to experience a special preview of the latest in event virtualization and social VR technology, courtesy of Redpill VR. The new shows follow a successful summer for the “Renaissance Engage” series, which featured scintillating performances from legendary producers Hernan Cattaneo, Danny Tenaglia, and Sasha....
Watch Kygo and Ryan Tedder Perform “Lose Somebody” on Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show”
Kygo and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” last night, July 23rd, 2020 to perform their hit single “Lose Somebody.” The track, which appeared on Kygo’s momentous third studio album Golden Hour, was stripped down in stunning fashion via a virtual set. Each artist patched in from their own homes and went on to seamlessly collaborate on the show. Performances like these push the envelope of the robust livestreaming landscape in the wake of COVID-19, which continues to decimate the live entertainment industry. You can check out the performance below. FOLLOW KYGO: Facebook: facebook.com/kygoofficialInstagram: instagram.com/kygomusicTwitter: twitter.com/KygoMusicSpotify: spoti.fi/3eY6LwY
About Time: The Washington NFL Team Changing Name To “Washington Football Team”, No Virgil
Source: George Gojkovich / Getty Cultural sensitivity (and calling out the racism jig) might be at an all-time high, thus companies far and wide are being tasked to evolve with the times. A long eye sore for the National Football League is about to be finally addressed. As per the official Washington Redskins website the NFL team has announced they will be changing the name for the 2020-2021 season. The organization is switching gears when it comes to their brand in light of the current climate in the country. While the NFC East squad has not finalized their new identity they have a temporary solve. They detailed their strategy in a formal statement. “For updated brand clarity and consistency purposes, we will call ourselves the ‘Washington Football Team’ pending adoption of our new name. ...
Woke King, LeBron James Keeps The Focus On Breonna Taylor During 1st Post Game Presser
Source: Jonathan Bachman / Getty When the NBA first announced that it was coming back, some players were worried resumed play would take away the focus from social justice matters. LeBron James and other players are making sure that is not the case. LeBron James returned to NBA action Thursday (Jul.23), and he definitely didn’t look like he was home just chilling. Following limited work that saw the King score 12 points and dish out 5 assists in during a tune-up game against the Dallas Mavericks, James made it very clear that his focus is not just on winning a chip, but calling for justice for Breonna Taylor. Bron demanded that the officers who took Breonna Taylor’s life after executing a no-knock warrant be brought to justice while answering a basketball-related question. “First of all, I...
Taraji O. Henson To Star In New ‘Empire’ Spin-Off
Source: photo: Fox/Imagine Entertainment Lee Daniels’ Empire might’ve come to an end in 2020 but the world that Luscious and Cookie Lyon created seems like it will continue on. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Taraji P. Henson will continue to get into all kinds of drama and shenanigans as Fox has decided to give her Cookie character her own spin-off series which will be produced by Henson’s own production company, TPH Entertainment. Boss moves! Lee Daniels and Danny Strong will be serve as co-executive producers of the show which will follow Cookie Lyon as she takes her talents to Los Angeles where she’ll no doubt leave her mark as only she can. No word yet on the series title or when it will be slated to debut, but rumors have it that some OG Empire cast members may make appearan...
HBO Bringing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ ‘Between the World and Me’ To Television
Source: Ismael Quintanilla / Getty You love to see it. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ nonfiction work Between the World and Me is coming to HBO as a special. Vulture is reporting that Coates’ book, which is described as “a powerful letter to his teenage son looking back on his life through the lens of structural racism,” is coming to HBO and will be similar to the 2018 Apollo stage performance. Per Vulture: “Technically, they’re adapting the Apollo Theater’s 2018 stage performance, which featured readings from the New York Times bestseller. The special will also include animation and both archival and documentary footage. Kamilah Forbes, executive producer of the Apollo and an old friend of Coates’s (she’s even in the book), will once again direct the adaptation, as well as executive pro...
Billie Eilish Announces New Song ‘My Future’
The world is depressing, but at least we can look forward to a new Billie Eilish tune. The singer, SPIN’s 2019 Artist of the Year, tweeted Friday that her next single, “my future,” is out Thursday, July 30. As of this writing, it’s unclear whether the song will appear on a new album. But Eilish has stayed busy in recent months, recording the theme to the recent James Bond film No Time to Die and releasing the stand-alone cut “everything i wanted.” Billie Eilish – “my future”Out next Thursday — billie eilish (@billieeilish) July 24, 2020 Those tracks follow her acclaimed debut LP, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, issued in March 2019. The project, which topped the Billboard 200, earned Eilish the most awards of any recipient at this year’s Grammy ceremony, including Album of t...
