Aaliyah’s Music Finally Coming to Streaming Services in the ‘Near Future,’ Estate Says

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorToots Hibbert, who passed away Friday night at the age of 77, was one of the last surviving founders of reggae music. The influence of his six-decade career is evidenced by the wide variety of artists paying tribute to him in the hours after his death.Ziggy Marley, recording artist and son of reggae titan Bob — who was a friend and contemporary of Hibbert’s — wrote, “The Legendary Toots Hibbert has passed.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDespite the COVID-19 pandemic, revenues for recorded music actually increased in the U.S. in the first half of 2020, according to the Recording Industry Association of America’s mid-year report.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Songs has acquired Big Deal Music Group and brought board its senior staff, with Kenny MacPherson becoming CEO of Hipgnosis Songs Group and reporting directly to founder and CEO Merck Mercuriadis. He is joined by Co-Presidents Casey Robison and Jamie Cerreta and Executive Vice President Dave Ayers (New York) as well as Senior Vice President Pete Robinson (Nashville) all of whom have signed new five-year contracts, according to the announcement.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTriller, the music-video creation app, has named a dozen top female music industry executives to a new advisory board.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith the in-person awards ceremony canceled due to the pandemic, iHeartRadio unveiled its Music Award winners over the weekend.Winners include Billie Eilish for Female Artist of the Year and two other awards, Lizzo for Song of the Year (“Truth Hurts”), Jonas Brothers for Best Duo/Group of the Year, Taylor Swift for Album of the Year (“Lover”) and more. The 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards also honored Elton John with the Tour of the Year Award.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDowntown Music Publishing announced the signing of global publishing administration agreements with Wu-Tang Productions and Diggs Family Music, and owners Robert “RZA” Diggs and Mitchell “Divine” Diggs, to represent the iconic hip-hop group’s interest in songs from its back catalog of classic albums, as well as select works co-written or produced by individual Wu-Tang Clan members for solo releases, affiliates and other artists.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Songs founder Merck Mercuriadis named Ted Cockle president and Amy Thomson as chief catalogue officer of the company.Cockle was most recently president of Virgin EMI in the U.K., which under his tenure managed the recorded music for artists including Queen, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, George Michael, Justin Bieber, Emeli Sande, The Killers, Lorde and Lewis Capaldi.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhen veteran music producer Hal Willner passed away due to complications believed to be associated with Covid-19 on April 7, a day after his 64th birthday, the music community in New York and beyond was devastated.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVeteran agent and former WME head of music Marc Geiger says the live-music business will rebound in a big way once the coronavirus pandemic recedes.In a conversation with Goldman Sachs’ music specialist Lisa Yang at the International Festival Forum in London on Wednesday, Geiger said the “claustrophobia economy” of the pandemic will be replaced by “a second Roaring ‘20s, a hundred years later,” of economic growth, according to IQ.He was referencing the giddy

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn an effort to rally support for the countless music venues impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of buildings across the U.S. — from New York’s Empire State Building to Seattle’s Space Needle — were illuminated in red light on Tuesday evening (Sept.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, an organization formed by music industry execs Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang under the name #TheShowMustBePaused began with a call for a single day shutdown soon grew into a movement that called for change across the entire industry.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMore than 1,500 music venues across the U.S. will be illuminated in red light on Tuesday evening (Sept.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFive agents formerly with Paradigm have launched a new agency called TBA that represents The War on Drugs, Courtney Barnett, Chvrches, Jose Gonzales, Guided by Voices, Jay Som, Yaeji, Omar Apollo and many other artists.The company, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, was founded by agents Marshall Betts, Avery McTaggart, Amy Davidman, Ryan Craven, and Devin Landau.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe concept of the remix album dates back to the 1980s, when record companies would slap together several “dance,” “club,” “house,” “street” or “funky fresh” remixes into full-length albums, creating a relatively low-overhead addition to the catalogs — and balance sheets — of artists ranging from Madonna and David Bowie to the Human League and Milli Vanilli.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrince’s songs were always works in progress — he rarely played one exactly the same way twice in concert, and as more of the music from his vast vault has been released in recent years, it’s become clear that many of his songs underwent multiple, drastically different iterations before they were released, if they were released at all.A case in point is “Forever in My Life,” from his classic 1987 album “Sign O’ the Times,” which gets an massive-ultra-deluxe reissue

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThese are boom times for hit songwriters, with catalogs being snapped up by Hipgnosis, Shamrock and others — and the latest big acquisition comes from Spirit Music Group, which announced that it has acquired the publishing catalog of Grammy-nominated songwriter and former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi.

On the nineteenth anniversary of her death yesterday, Aaliyah’s family announced that they have begun negotiations to bring the musician’s recordings catalogue to streaming services.Although her 1994 debut album ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number’ is widely available online, the majority of her catalogue has been unavailable digitally for many years. To date, the recordings have been controlled by Blackground, the label owned by Aaliyah’s uncle Barry Hankerson.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLebanese-British singer-songwriter Mika will stage a livestreamed concert to raise funds and awareness for relief in the wake of the explosion in Beirut last month that killed more than 200 people and devastated a large area in the country’s capital.His “I Love Beirut” benefit concert will take place on Saturday 19 September and will be live-streamed across four time zones via YouTube.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSinger-songwriter-actor Kat Cunning has signed with Lava Records, home to Lorde, Greta Van Fleet, Jessie J and other artists — and debuts with the song and video “Supernova,” which you can see below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAt 18, first-time voter Billie Eilish is the youngest music artist to appear at the Democratic National Convention, and she made the most of the platform, delivering a strong speech against President Donald Trump, advocating Joe Biden and imploring Americans to vote.She was introduced by host Kerry Washington, who spoke of the voter-registration booths at Eilish’s concerts — which were present before the singer was old enough to vote — and her efforts to reduce the