Live Nation Posts $3.1 Billion in Revenue, Record Attendance as Global Touring Returns

Taylor Swift gave her track ‘I Think He Knows’ its live debut during her latest ‘Eras Tour’ show last night (May 21) – watch the footage below.The pop star was performing a third and final concert at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts where she delivered a mammoth 45-song set.Towards the end of the gig, Swift treated fans to the customary ‘surprise’ segment which sees her air two different songs acoustically in each city. It is often reserved for live debuts, rarities and collaborations.The singer’s most recent show included the first outing for the ‘Lover’ cut ‘I Think He Knows’, as well as the tour debut of the title track from her ‘Red’ album.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As expected, Foo Fighters revealed their new drummer during a livestreamed event on Sunday: And as expected, it’s veteran session man and longtime friend Josh Freese. The band launches a massive tour — their first without drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died tragically in Colombia last year — in New Hampshire on May 24. While the band announced its intention to continue late last year, they went to great lengths not to reveal the identity of their new drummer. They played into this during the opening moments of the livestream, called “Foo Fighters: Preparing Music for Concerts,” which featured all of the members joking around with each other in their rehearsal room, with their guitars on.

Taylor Swift gave a live debut to ‘Midnights’ track ‘Question…?’ last night (May 20) as the ‘Eras’ tour hit Massachusetts.The singer is set to play multiple dates at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, and played the second show at the venue on Saturday night.During the ‘surprise’ section of the set each night, Swift plays a different track each show, often giving songs live debuts or dusting off rarities.At the second Foxborough gig, she gave ‘Question…?’ its live debut, which you can see footage of below.For other gigs on the tour, the ‘surprise’ section, Swift has previously paid tribute to The National by playing ‘coney island’, on which they guested, for the first time, and welcomed Aaron Dessner to the stage to duet on ‘The Great War’ (a track he produced for the ‘3am Edition’ of ‘Midnights’) and ‘Mad Woman’ from her ‘Folklore’ album.Swift will play a third and final gig in Foxborough tonight (May 21).Elsewhere in recent days on the ‘Eras’ tour, Swift appeared to defend a fan from a security guard during her Philadelphia show last weekend.During Swift’s performance of her 2014 hit ‘Bad Blood’ the singer paused mid-song to address a security guard.“She’s fine! She wasn’t doing anything!” she said, before yelling “Hey, stop!” two more times while simultaneously continuing to sing the lyrics.Elsewhere, thousands of Swift fans who couldn’t get tickets flocked outside the stadium on Saturday where many sang and danced along to her hits.Meanwhile at an earlier ‘Eras’ tour show in Nashville, a Taylor Swift fan who failed to get a ticket for her show has revealed he became a security guard to get into one of her concerts.Footage of Davis Perrigo stood behind the stage barrier singing along to her 2015 single ‘Style’ at one

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Andrea Ganis, Atlantic Records’ legendary president of promotion, is leaving the company after 43 years, she announced in a message to staff today, which follows below in full. She began at the company as a secretary in 1980, became head of the department and eventually rose so high in the ranks that they invented the president of promotion title for her. In a 2020 interview with Variety looking back at her career, she said, ““My early years began with the Rolling Stones, Bette Midler, Abba, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Phil Collins, U2, Stevie Nicks and so many more, including songs that I forgot I promoted until I hear them in a store and point up and say, ‘I worked that record!,’” she laughed.  

Taylor Swift was all smiles as she was spotted leaving a recording studio with her rumoured new beau Matty Healy. US pop sensation Taylor, 33, and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, 34, have set the rumour mill ablaze after being pictured together on numerous occasions since Taylor split from her long-term boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, last month. Taylor had been in a relationship with Joe, 32, since 2017.

Taylor Swift was visibly enchanted when she looked out into the crowd and saw Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' two children, so much so she gave them a sweet shout out!The «Look What You Made Me Do» singer was in the middle of her Eras Tour performance Friday night at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia when, while strumming her guitar, she spotted two of the couple's four kiddos — 7-year-old, James, and 6-year-old Inez — and offered a sweet hello.In video shared on social media, Swift's glowing in a red shimmery coat over a black bodysuit and smiling. She steps away from the mic and takes a good second to look in the family's direction, and she appears to say «Hi.»According to, James and Inez were also spotted with Lively and Swift as they exited the stage.

Matty Healy is proving to be his rumored girlfriend Taylor Swift‘s no. 1 fan!

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor New Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl faced a light release schedule during his first two quarters in office and has promised not to candy-coat the results. Although the company’s revenue was up 4% and its publishing division posted a strong quarter, the company is just beginning to emerge from that thin stretch of releases with strong performances from three recent albums from its Atlantic Records division, from Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow and Tiesto. As he did in his first earnings call, Kyncl nodded to that situation and then looked ahead to a robust release schedule for the remainder of 2023, with upcoming releases from Dua Lipa, David Guetta, Lil Uzi Vert, Burna Boy, Kelly Clarkson, Tiago PZK, Bailey Zimmerman, and others. “I’m very confident in the path forward, as we combine creative and marketing excellence with tech innovation to propel our growth,” he said.

Ed Sheeran has claimed he never received an invite to perform at this evening's Coronation Concert this evening, as fans begin to flood to central London for the special music event. Speaking earlier this month, the Thinking Out Loud singer, 32, expressed his desire to "set the record straight" after reports began circulating that he'd rejected the opportunity to perform before the newly crowned King and Queen.

Taylor Swift is heading back into the studio to re-record another of her albums.

Phoebe Bridgers joined Taylor Swift onstage in Nashville last night (May 5) to give the collaborative track ‘Nothing New’ its live debut – check out fan-shot footage below.‘Nothing New’ was released in 2021 as part of Swift’s ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ alongside  other “from the Vault” tracks featuring artists including Chris Stapleton and Ed Sheeran.Speaking at the time, Bridgers called the collab a “dream” and admitted that she “got teary” while recording it.Last night the pair performed it live for the very first time – watch footage below:

Post Malone is this year’s recipient of a distinguished songwriting award.

Record Store Day 2023.Weekly market data from the Official Charts Company has come in today that offers a complete picture of the annual event’s success. Vinyl sales enjoyed a 121.8 per cent increase in the last week, with 190,000 copies sold, surpassing the week’s nationwide sales of CDs (standing at 182,189).

Taylor Swift debuted yet another song live for the first time at the ‘Eras’ tour this weekend (April 29) – watch her play ‘High Infidelity’ in Atlanta below.During the ‘surprise’ section of the set each night, Swift plays a different track each show, often giving songs live debuts or dusting off rarities.At the second of three shows at the Mercedes-Benz Arena on Saturday night, Swift gave a live debut to ‘High Infidelity’ from the ‘3am Edition’ of 2022 album ‘Midnights’, owing to its lyric: “Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th?”Watch footage below.The previous night (April 28), Swift paid tribute to The National by playing ‘coney island’, on which they guested, for the first time.The song, taken from her 2020 album ‘evermore’ was played along with ‘The Other Side Of The Door’ from ‘Fearless’ as part of the surprise segment of the show.Before playing the song, Swift took a moment to shout out the Aaron Dessner-fronted band on the day that their new album, ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’, was released.“This band has influenced me beyond my ability to verbalize how much they’ve influenced me — just lyrically, their ability to set a scene, their ability to tell a story,” Swift said. “And obviously, Aaron Dessner is in the National and he has completely changed my life.”She continued: “I was lucky enough to be able to write a song with them for their new album.

The National have shared their ninth studio LP, First Two Pages of Frankenstein. At the center of the 11-track project is a cut featuring twin band members Aaron and Bryce Dessner’s frequent collaborator, Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift paid tribute to The National by playing ‘coney island’, on which they guested, for the first time on the latest stop of her ‘Eras’ tour.The song, taken from her 2020 album ‘evermore’ was played along with ‘The Other Side Of The Door’ from ‘Fearless’ as part of the “surprise song” segment of the show, which made a stop last night (April 28) in Atlanta, Georgia. Swift is set to play two further shows there tonight and tomorrow (April 29-30).Before playing the song, Swift took a moment to shout out the Aaron Dessner-fronted band on the day that their new album, ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’, was released.“This band has influenced me beyond my ability to verbalize how much they’ve influenced me — just lyrically, their ability to set a scene, their ability to tell a story,” Swift said.

The National have shared a lyric video for their new song with Taylor Swift, ‘The Alcott’.READ MORE: The National on pulling back from the brink: “It’s felt fragile before, but this time was different”The single is taken from their newly-debuted album, ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’, which was released today (April 28), and sees the indie five-piece team up with pop icon Taylor Swift.Now, the band have shared an official lyric video for the emotional track, which also features in-studio footage of the band and Swift. Check it out below.Ahead of the release of their ninth studio album, The National spoke to NME about the inspiration behind the LP, and their long-running relationship with the ‘Anti-Hero’ singer — which first formed over a decade ago.According to the members, Aaron Dessner sent Swift the song shortly after it was written, and she responded within half an hour, making it into the track it is today.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Less than a month after parting ways with Warner Music, Brazilian superstar singer Anitta has signed with Republic Records in partnership with Universal Music Latin Entertainment, the companies officially announced today. Variety broke the news of the deal last week. (Photo IDs below.) About the signing, Anitta shared, “After being in this business for many years, I wanted to find partners that work like a family. After meeting with Monte, Wendy, their team at Republic, and Jesus Lopez I was blown away. Their passion, innovation, creativity and vision is incredible.  I not only felt so connected to them as an artist, but also on a human level. I knew immediately, I was home.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Fugees rapper Pras was found guilty Wednesday of 10 counts related to a multimillion-dollar “clandestine foreign influence campaign scheme” funded by a wealthy Malaysian financier to peddle influence in the United States, according to the Associated Press and other news outlets.  The trial included testimony from witnesses ranging from actor Leonardo DiCaprio to former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The rapper, whose real name is Prakazrel Michel, was accused of funneling money from Low Taek Jho, a now-fugitive Malaysian financer, through false donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, and then attempting to quash a Justice Department investigation and influence an extradition case on behalf of China under the Trump administration.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Driven by big releases from Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift, Tomorrow X Together, Drake and others, Universal Music Group saw its revenues rise 11.5% year over year to $2.71 billion in the first quarter of 2023. But the company’s earnings call on Wednesday was just as newsworthy for the company doubling down on the strong remarks it has made about the fast-rising presence of — some would say threat from — AI in the music world, which hit UMG in the form of “Heart on My Sleeve,” a song using AI-generated soundalikes of two of the company’s biggest artists, Drake and the Weeknd.  “The recent explosive development in generative AI will, if left unchecked, both increase the flood of unwanted content hosted on platforms, and create rights issues with respect to existing copyright law, in the U.S. and other countries, as well as laws governing trademark, name and likeness, voice impersonation, and right of publicity,” chairman-CEO Lucian Grainge said on the call.