U.S. District Judge George King wants to hear more about whether the 19th century schoolteacher who has been credited with writing “Happy Birthday to You” — the English language’s most popular song — had abandoned the copyright to the lyrics. On Monday, King directed parties involved in a fight over whether the song is copyrighted to…

Stevie Wonder, Imagine Dragons, and Kendrick Lamar are at the top of the just-announced 2015 Life Is Beautiful Music and Art Festival lineup. The legendary soul singer and To Pimp a Butterfly artist will be joined by acts like Run the Jewels, Weezer, Future Islands, and Major Lazer. Brandon Flowers and Death Cab for Cutie are…

The dulcet strains of motion picture and television soundtracks wafted across the grounds of the State Capitol on Monday, as musicians union members from Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere joined Sacramento members in a concert and press conference to support AB 1199, a bill that would link production tax credits to scoring in California….

Digital music continues to invest in big data. Pandora announced Tuesday it has agreed to acquire Next Big Sound, a music analytics company that tracks social and streaming activity. Terms of the deal were not disclosed….

Spotify is racing ahead of the pack. And not just the pack of music streaming companies – though, there’s that, too. Through its freshly minted agreement with Starbucks, Spotfiy is also leading the pack of digital co-branders….

DC Comics is reportedly involved in another legal battle over a trademark. This time, it’s not a Spanish soccer team coming under fire for using a thousand year old crest featuring a bat logo. Instead, it’s pop singer Rihanna, who is trying to register a trademark for her real first name, Robyn, for use as…

Using tagging data from Shazam, as well as sales and streaming information tracked by Nielsen Music, Billboard partners with Clio Music each month to present a chart ranking the top songs in commercials. Rankings exclude any song that has recently charted within the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100….

Having a widely successful first album is a blessing and a curse all at the same time. Releasing a powerful first album does wonders for a group, but it also brings with it a set of new challenges and obstacles….

Back in 2013, our Best 300 Albums list contender Ghostface Killah released a comic book-based concept album called Twelve Reasons to Die, a Western-esque story composed courtesy of producer Adrian Younge. Now the duo has teamed up again to release a follow-up record called Twelve Reasons to Die II, which is due out on July 10 via Linear Lab. Along…

Communion Records, the British label founder by Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett, has entered into a wide-ranging agreement with Capitol Music Group with CMG’s Virgin Records contributing artist development and marketing support. The news comes as Communion band Catfish and the Bottlemen sees its debut album, The Balcony, certified Gold in the United Kingdom….