Music
Billboard, May 2019
At the grand opening of the Keith Richards photo exhibition Keith, Unfiltered at West Hollywood’s Sunset Marquis Hotel on Thursday night (May 23), anecdotes about the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist and all-around icon were in ample supply.
Billboard, April 2020
After releasing her first studio album, securing a booking agent and even netting a Juno nomination earlier this year, Toronto-based singer/songwriter STORRY's career finally started picking up steam after years of frustration. Then came the coronavirus.
Billboard, September 2020
On the evening of Aug. 12, a stage was placed in front of the 7,100-capacity Microsoft Theater at LA Live in Los Angeles, where a crowd of no one was given the red-carpet treatment. Forty eight banquet tables sat empty, each with a klieg light, while a sign on a nearby podium spelled out the symbolism behind the setup: each of the arrangements were designed to represent 250,000 live event workers, for a total of 12 million -- the estimated number of touring industry professionals in the U.S.
Billboard, December 2019
In July 2019 there were few who would have said no to Lizzo, then on the cusp of enjoying her first Billboard No. 1 hit with the massive, culture-defining single “Truth Hurts.” Count Tiny Desk Concerts creator, producer and creative director Bob Boilen as one of the exceptions.
Billboard, March 2021
The House of Representatives passed a landmark $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill on Wednesday (March 10), including a mixed bag of legislation for the music industry’s hard-hit freelance workforce.
Billboard, February 2020
The manufacturing and storage facility for Apollo Masters Corp. -- a Banning, Calif.-based manufacturing plant that supplies the lacquer used for making master discs, which are then used to create vinyl records -- has burned down in a massive fire, the company confirmed in a statement posted to its official website.
Billboard, February 2020
It may have been Ozzy Osbourne’s night, but the Prince of Darkness was almost nowhere to be found.
Billboard, March 2020
"I think it's gonna put a lot of people who were just barely making it out of business. It's like the worst time of the year for this to happen."
Billboard, May 2020
Jimi Davies, frontman of the long-running Annapolis rock band Jimmie's Chicken Shack, is one of millions of freelance musicians in the U.S. who has lost work due to the coronavirus pandemic. And like so many, his efforts to secure government relief funds established by the CARES Act has amounted to an exercise in futility.
Billboard, July 2020
On May 5, musician Dave Madden arrived at Same Sky Productions in Austin to record his first in-studio session since the pandemic. Spotting a Rubik’s Cube on the desk inside the control room, the composer and songwriter cracked a joke to lighten the mood.
Billboard, June 2020
Writer-producer, hip-hop pioneer and former Billboard reporter Robert “Rocky” Ford Jr. died on May 19 of undisclosed causes, his wife Linda Medley confirmed to Billboard. He was 70.
Billboard, November 2019
The Black Keys brought out another Ohio-bred icon during their concert Tuesday night at The Forum, the first of two dates the blues-rock duo has scheduled at the Los Angeles arena during their "Let's Rock" Tour.
Billboard, May 2020
"I felt just as drained at the end of the day doing this as I would if I was running around on a regular set, even though I had just been sitting at a desk all day," says video director Erin Murray, who choreographed and co-directed, alongside Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, the music video for Thao & the Get Down Stay Down's recent single "Phenom," which was filmed using video conference program Zoom. Choreography is challenging enough in normal times, says Murray, but over video chat it becomes "a test in communication and patience."
Billboard, April 2020
Reservoir's executive vp creative and A&R Donna Caseine is talking about remote songwriting in the age of COVID-19, but thanks to a patchy wireless connection, the conversation kicks off like one of those old "Can You Hear Me Now?" Verizon ads. The irony isn't lost on her.
Billboard, July 2019
As this week’s fracas between Taylor Swift and Big Machine label head Scott Borchetta has shown, ownership of an artist’s master recordings is a sensitive issue -- particularly with a catalog is as valuable as Swift’s. But the country-turned-pop superstar is far from the first musician to battle with her label over master rights.
Billboard, May 2019
Universal Music Group (UMG) and Dolby Laboratories are teaming up to bring Dolby’s cutting-edge Atmos immersive audio technology to the music industry, the companies announced on Thursday (May 23).
Billboard, April 2019
The more than decade-long battle over the .music top-level domain extension (TLD) has finally come to an end. The victor: DotMusic Limited, a company founded by Cypriot entrepreneur Constantine Roussos that won out over such heavy hitters as Google and Amazon.
Billboard, February 2019
When USC Annenberg’s groundbreaking “Inclusion in the Recording Studio?” study was released last January, it hit the music industry like a bombshell.
Billboard, June 2021
A host of music creator advocacy organizations are gearing up for battle against the latest part of the American Law Institute’s "restatement” of U.S. copyright law, with several signing on to a new letter urging ALI members to vote against it. At 5 p.m. ET today (June 8), several sections of the copyright Restatement pertaining to issues including fixation (how a work must be "fixed" in a tangible medium to get protection) and joint authorship go up for a vote in front of the full ALI membership for the first time.
Billboard, May 2021
When the CARES Act gave freelancers access to unemployment benefits for the first time in U.S. history late last March, New York-based drummer and band leader Philippe Lemm (frontman for the Philipe Lemm Trio) wasn't certain if he qualified as the holder of an O-1B visa, which is granted to individuals "with an extraordinary ability in the arts."
Billboard, January 2020
It was the summer of 2006, and Nick Gross was prepping for his first year at the University of Southern California, the prestigious private institution in Los Angeles that has historically served as a launching pad for a number of lucrative entertainment careers. But two weeks before his start date, the opportunity of a lifetime came knocking: A record deal with Epic Records.
Billboard, July 2019
The 2020 election is about to get a whole new sound.
Billboard, May 2019
Of all the ingenious technologies presented at the Techstars Music Accelerator Demo Day at NeueHouse Hollywood on Thursday, none could compete with the pure razzle-dazzle of EmbodyMe, an AI-enabled technology that allows users to map their face onto a virtual avatar from a single photograph.
Billboard, October 2018
Unlike so many musicians, director John Carpenter never tires of playing his biggest hit: the eerie, endlessly referenced theme to his 1978 horror classic Halloween.