Tag Archives: music-industry

On Wednesday, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched its inaugural “Class Of” campaign, which the organization will use to celebrate artists who earned first-time U.S. certifications in a given year. In announcing the 2020 class, it revealed that 53 artists scored their first gold or platinum awards. 32 …

The only artists up for the 2021 Best Children’s Album Grammy are white — which, in a year of reckoning for the Recording Academy over diversity problems, has drawn wide ire, and led to three of the five white nominees writing to the Academy last month asking for their names …

Each month, more than 120 million people sign onto Minecraft, an expansive, free-wheeling computer game that allows users to build and defend towns, communities, and inventions with digital bricks. Minecraft is also one of the most-vlogged-about games on YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook. (This user-generated video of gameplay, for example, has …

It’s unfortunately commonplace that many people — artists, small business owners and average music fans alike — don’t know that musicians should be making money every time their work is played in a restaurant, bar, or retail store. In fact, it’s illegal for businesses to play music through personal streaming …

Universal Music Group just became the first of the three music majors to open standalone offices in Israel and Morocco, making the announcement early Tuesday morning. UMG’s EVP of market development Adam Granite, who’s eagerly awaiting a change of scenery, would have been in Tel Aviv for the announcement — …

Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber‘s “Stuck With U” takes Number One on this week’s Top 100 Song’s Chart, narrowly edging out Tekashi 6ix9ine‘s “Gooba” in a tight and hotly contested race. While “Gooba” led the chart most of last week, “Stuck With U” pulled ahead with more than 100,000 digital …

Since the pandemic began, every record labels’ marketing team has been throwing around the same buzzword phrase: “getting creative.” Traditional album marketing tactics like touring — which is essential for developing artists who need to build up a new audience and strengthen relationships with their existing fanbase — have gone …

The abrupt reshuffling of major events like Coachella, SXSW, and Pearl Jam and Madonna’s shows due to coronavirus is already devastating to the live music industry — but by some predictions, we’re only seeing the start of the chaos. Coronavirus-related event cancellations seem to be barreling in by the hour, …

After a long day of panels, discussions and demos highlighting touring business trends at the Pollstar Live 2020 conference in Los Angeles, a keynote conversation between mega-mogul/manager Irving Azoff and the notoriously unabashed Nicki Minaj felt radical, refreshing and carefree. Plenty of previous guests talked in circles, providing fluffy, media-trained …

Are the world’s biggest superstars having a tougher time of things on Spotify in 2019? Or is it just that the service really misses Drake? On December 3rd, Spotify confirmed its biggest track and artist of the year. (A little premature, perhaps, but announcing such things early in December allows …