Month: November 2017

November music roundup: 7 must-listen new releases, from Angel Olsen to Rihanna

So long Thanksgiving, hello December holidays. Before you start wrapping presents and stringing up the lights, let’s take a look back at November’s best music releases — including a stellar posthumous soul record and a Rihanna rap track, plus some unexpectedly great holiday tunes. Sharon Jones’s final album is a bittersweet close to her career…


Jay-Z Talks Infidelity, Music as Therapy in New Interview

Jay-Z opened up about his marriage to Beyoncé, his infidelity and how using music as therapy led to them working on music together in a new interview with T Magazine. In his discussion with New York Times‘ executive editor Dean Baquet, the rapper spoke about how the painful subject of infidelity was addressed while the…


Nielsen 360 Study Finds Consumers Love Streaming Music, But Radio Still Strong

Consumers are flocking to music, with streaming becoming the preferred channel of choice. The latest study from Nielsen Music shows 90 percent of the population listens to music and that, on average, they do so 32.1 hours a week. That’s up from 86 percent in the prior annual study, when listening time averaged 26.6 hours…


Your Data Is Shaping the Future of Music

In their 2013 interview with NPR, Earl Sweatshirt and Vince Staples discussed why they keep their circles small. Their reasoning: because of the internet’s low barrier to entry, there are too many pseudo-artists taking their stabs at what they think will get them famous, and the industry doesn’t acknowledge a difference. “The internet is life…


Giving thanks for the music that (almost) redeemed 2017

The ascent of Cardi B, seen performing last month in Chicago, was a musical event to be thankful for in 2017. Given the nonstop turmoil of the past 11 months — from political upheaval to accusations of sexual harassment to gun violence to natural disasters — perhaps the thing to be grateful for as we…


Your Favorite Radio Hits May Go Silent

Songwriters threaten to withhold their music if stations don’t give them a bigger share of revenue. Jon Bon Jovi got his big break in the early 1980s after spending an entire day waiting to pester a disc jockey at a radio station on Long Island, N.Y., to play a demo of a song he’d written….


The World’s Highest-Paid Women In Music 2017

Beyonce leads the annual list of the world’s highest-paid women in music with a staggering sum. Shortly after Adele took home the Grammy award for Album of the Year in February, she broke it in half–with the intention of physically sharing it with Beyoncé, the internet concluded—in recognition of the latter’s Lemonade. But Queen Bey won an even…


Created With Imogen Heap, Mi.Mu Turns Hand Gestures Into Music

  Made in collaboration with British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap, the Mi.Mu glove turns the arms and hands of performers into musical instruments. Currently on Kickstarter, the project has raised about £67,000 (about $112,800) so far and has 16 days to reach its £200,000 ($336,620) goal. Eventually, Heap and Mi.Mu’s developers hope the glove and its software,…


Steve Aoki is known for ‘caking’ his music fans, but getting them dressed is his latest move

The Grammy-nominated producer and DJ who throws cakes at people — yes, he literally tosses giant sheet cakes into the faces of screaming fans at his packed shows — strolled through the quiet second floor of the men’s building at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on a mid-October evening, bypassing dressed mannequins and racks…


Rapper Lil Peep dies at 21, music community mourns: ‘Your music changed the world’

The music community is mourning the loss of rapper Lil Peep, who died at 21. Sarah Stennett, CEO of First Access Entertainment which worked with the rapper in 2016, confirmed his death to USA TODAY. “I am shocked and heartbroken,” Stennett wrote. “I do not believe Peep wanted to die, this is so tragic. He…