J.J. Abrams’ Loud Robot Label Strikes Deal With RCA, Premiering With Nnena (EXCLUSIVE)

The Verge back in April, but the first look at Roku’s updated remote hit the company’s website on Wednesday morning. The Apple TV+ button sits alongside buttons for streaming rivals Netflix, Hulu and Disney+.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs Variety’s recent cover star H.E.R. announced during Sunday night’s BET Awards, the artist’s Lights On Festival will return to California’s Bay Area in September.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith “Nine,” the mysterious London-based alt-R&B collective Sault has added another layer to their mystique by making this new album — incredibly, their fifth in just over two years — available for just 99 days. Free downloads can be found on their website and vinyl is available from Bandcamp (and you can even stream the whole thing on Instagram), so it’s not like it’ll be gone forever.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorGrammy-nominated singer, songwriter and actor Janelle Monáe has signed an exclusive, worldwide administration agreement with Sony Music Publishing, the company announced on Tuesday.

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Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAdd “podcast host” to Elizabeth Banks’ multihyphenate résumé.Banks has inked a multi-project development and first-look deal with Audible. The actor-producer-writer-director has set up two exclusive podcast projects with Audible under the pact: “My Body, My Podcast,” hosted by Banks, above sex, motherhood and more; and “Fugly,” a scripted ensemble comedy.The six-episode “My Body, My Podcast” is scheduled to debut July 29, exclusively on Audible.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorVeteran artist-producer DJ David Guetta has entered into a career- agreement with Warner Music that sees the company acquiring his recorded-music catalog from the last two decades, as well as striking a new deal for future recordings.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith two major releases in just a few days, June is basically a debut party for 4th & Broadway, the legendary Island Records imprint that is now helmed by LaTrice Burnette.The label, named after Island’s former location above Tower Records in New York’s East Village, originally was launched in 1984 and focused on hip-hop and dance music by artists such as Eric B. & Rakim (the 1987 classic “Paid in Full”), Dream Warriors, Stereo MCs, Bomb the Bass and others.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSales, production and financing company Premiere Entertainment Group has acquired worldwide rights to the live-action musical fantasy “A Fairy Tale After All.” PEG will be introducing the film to buyers during the virtual Cannes market. The family film stars Emily Shenaut as Sky, a high school teenager who is magically transported to the fairy tale Kingdom of Celestia, where the villagers know her as Princess Geneva.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAlmost six months after Congress passed the $16 billion Save Our Stages act into law, less than 100 of the nearly 5,000 struggling independent venues have been approved for relief money, according to its most recent report, released June 9 by the Small Business Administration, which distributes the loans.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAnnouncing its second major rights pick-up in a matter of days, Superights, part of France’s Superprod Group, has secured global distribution rights to Tencent Video’s slapstick series “The Adventure of Little Penguin.”Nathalie Pinguet, Superights’ deputy general manager, will introduce the 52-episode animated show to buyers at Annecy’s four-day MIFA market, which kicked off Tuesday June 15 in the fairy-tale looking French Alpine town.

Perfect Strangers, the 1980s sitcom starring Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot, is the latest classic comedy to get a reboot – with Robin Thede and London Hughes set as leads.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBiz 3 PR veteran Dana Meyerson has launched an imprint called Slashie through Mom + Pop Music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrimary Wave Music, the fast-rising independent music company, has entered into a worldwide distribution agreement with Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, an arm of Capitol Music Group in the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorLisa Sugar, more than 16 years after launching PopSugar as an entertainment blog, has stepped away from day-to-day management of the brand.Leadership of PopSugar, which was acquired in the fall of 2019 by Discovery-backed Group Nine Media, will be assumed by Angelica Marden — herself a 15-year PopSugar veteran — who has been named president of PopSugar.Asked what Lisa Sugar’s role is moving forward, a Group Nine rep said, “Lisa is the founder of PopSugar and will

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt is remarkable how few people know that the same person produced Bob Dylan’s three defining early albums (as well as “Like a Rolling Stone”), the first two Velvet Underground albums, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s debut “Freak Out” and pivotal music by jazz legends Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor (including tracks with John Coltrane), among many others.It was Tom Wilson, a visionary music producer who died in 1978 at the age of 47.He was even the man who in

Jane Campion, a Cannes legend who remains the only female director to have won the Palme d’Or with “The Piano,” will have her latest drama “The Power of the Dog” world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.A Netflix Original, “The Power of the Dog” stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn the heels of the forthcoming Rolling Loud festivals in Miami and Los Angeles comes the three-day Rolling Loud New York 2021, taking place place October 28 – 30th at Citi Field with headliners Travis Scott, J.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSources confirm to Variety that Mariah Carey has parted ways with Roc Nation and struck a partnership with the upstart Range Media Partners, where she will work with Melissa Ruderman, who oversaw her career at Roc Nation and left to join Range in January, as Variety exclusively announced.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorH.E.R. and Ingrid Andress will join the star-studded performer lineup for the 2021 CMT Awards while Anthony Mackie, Busy Philipps, Iliza Shlesinger and Michael Strahan have been added as presenters, the network announced Monday (June 7).The two artists will duet with previously announced performers: Fast-rising R&B star H.E.R.