Former Live Nation Exec Launches ‘Love4Live,’ Free Meditation Retreat for Concert Industry

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe pandemic has wreaked havoc on nearly every corner of the music industry, but along with musicians, independent venues are certainly among the hardest hit — a recent survey by the National Independent Venues Association says that 90% of such venues are in danger of closing permanently if they do not receive federal aid.While there’s a $10 billion “Save Our Stages” aid package slowly working its way through an apparently frozen Congress, one of the many things

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrimary Wave Music Publishing and Lava Media have announced a new business relationship that sees Primary Wave making an investment in the Lava Media businesses, including the “Lava Music” and “Lava for Good” podcasts, and providing marketing and branding support for the podcasts as well as access to Primary Wave’s roster of artists and writers.In addition, Lava will work closely with Primary Wave on new publishing signings and catalog acquisitions and will

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVenues are coming up with all kinds of ways to keep their sense of purpose alive during lockdown, but the Theatre at the Ace Hotel has come up with what may be a unique one: “5-7-5,” an “open air text-based art project” with poetry on its marquee.Twelve poets, songwriters, and text-based artists will contribute a short text, loosely based upon the rules of the poetic form of Haiku, “that expresses their thoughts and ideas on our tumultuous times,” according to the

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorC.J. Strock, formerly of William Morris Endeavor, joins Patrick McAuliff and Phil Egenthal, formerly of Paradigm Talent Agency to form Mint Talent Group, the new company announced early Tuesday.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSuperstar DJ Tiesto, alt-rock group Fitz & the Tantrums, bluegrass artist Billy Strings and funk-jam band Lotus will perform concerts from Red Rocks Amphitheater that will be livestreamed in 4K via Nugs.net, from Thursday to Sunday this week.There will be an “extremely limited number” of in-person tickets made available for purchase via axs.com and redrocksonline.com and in strict accordance with venue and local government safety guidelines, according to the

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLike everyone else, BTS and NPR have been forced to pivot during the pandemic — and for their first performance on NPR’s “Tiny Desk” concert series, the K-pop superstars performed from the record store VINYL & PLASTIC in BTS’s hometown of Seoul.The group drew more than half a million viewers for the premiere of the concert, which saw them tearing through three songs accompanied by a live band, including their current hit single “Dynamite.” The group also performed

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBTS and NPR announced on Sunday that the K-pop titans will be performing on NPR’s “Tiny Desk” concert series on Monday, Sept. 20 at 9 a.m.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn Tuesday, October 13, legendary jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders will perform at a special concert livestreamed from Zebulon in Los Angeles to celebrate his 80th birthday. Called “Another Trip Around the Sun,” the concert will see Sanders joined by Azar Lawrence on sax, John Beasley on keyboards, Tony Austin on drums and Sekou Bunch on bass.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorNew York City venue (Le) Poisson Rouge is launching LPR.tv, a subscription-based service through which they will livestream concerts held in their downtown venue (without an audience) in high-definition video with full production and soundboard audio.The venue has booked an impressive array of indie-leaning artists for LPR.tv’s inaugural lineup, including Cults, Kimbra, Sunflower Bean, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), San Fermin,  Kevin Devine, Son Little, Laraaji, Too Many

Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn are swapping bodies in the upcoming horror comedy film Freaky, which follows a teenage girl who switches bodies with a relentless serial killer.

Joss Stone made some new controversial statements on her podcast. The British singer, 33, was on her podcast "A Cuppa Happy" chatting with musician Nitin Sawhney about a trip she took to Libya and how the local militia “looked after” her.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticVeteran Broadway general manager Nathan Gehan is opening his own New York City general management firm, ShowTown Theatricals, with a roster of clients including the international musical production of Notre Dame de Paris at Lincoln Center in 2022, the Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol (Broadway, National Tour), American Prophet (Arena Stage), Anne of Green Gables (Goodspeed Musicals) and planned productions of Romy & Michele The Musical, Room, Syncing Ink and

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith the exception of the psychedelic misadventure “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” the Rolling Stones’ “Goats Head Soup” is probably the most maligned album of the group’s first 20 years. Released in 1973, it arrived as most of the bandmembers were entering their 30s and the group was entering its second decade (unheard-of for a rock band at the time), and it found them moving awkwardly into both.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLive Nation and Ticketmaster were hit with another round of furloughs on Thursday, said to number in the hundreds, sources tell Variety. The cuts at the world’s largest live-entertainment company (Live Nation owns Ticketmaster) are said to reach across all business units, particularly regional offices.

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 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 EditorThe Q&A and Human Re Sources team has launched Homebase, which it describes as a “virtual collective of global creators on TikTok.”According to the announcement, “Homebase seeks to foster community digitally, while uplifting a global group of TikTok creators to take their hustle to the next level.” As a part of the launch, TikTok creators are invited to apply to be part of the inaugural class of Homebase.