Jem Aswad-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The Songwriters Hall of Fame announced today that Post Malone will be the 2023 recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award, which is intended to honor “gifted young songwriters who are making a significant impact in the music industry with their original songs.” The award was created in 2004 to honor Hal David, Burt Bacharach’s longtime songwriting partner and SHOF chairman emeritus, for his support of young songwriters. Past recipients include Taylor Swift, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Lil Nas X, Sara Bareilles, Nick Jonas, Halsey, Nate Ruess, Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo, Benny Blanco, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Rob Thomas, and John Rzeznik.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Any serious fan of rapper-actor Jack Harlow knows that he carries a lot of pride for his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky — it’s not only mentioned in many of his songs but he’s made major donations to local organizations (including AMPED, Center for Women and Families, Grace James Academy, Louisville Urban League and Metro United Way), and last year he even played a special American Express-sponsored concert and livestream in Brooklyn where fans were served food made by several of his favorite hometown restaurants, an imaginative way to use a corporate sponsor to benefit fans and hometown businesses. Today he continues to bring it home by announcing the official launch of the Jack Harlow Foundation, which “will serve as the Louisville, KY native’s primary philanthropic vehicle to reinvest, uplift and support organizations aiming to make the city that raised him a better place,” according to the announcement. Head here for more information on the foundation.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Fast-rising R&B star Brent Faiyaz has struck a wide-ranging partnership with Steve Stoute’s company UnitedMasters that spans a recording partnership and a creative agency. UnitedMasters CEO and founder Steve Stoute says, “Brent Faiyaz is one of the most prolific independent artists today and we are extremely excited to embark on this new partnership with him. It’s been inspiring to watch his journey as an artist over the years and with this partnership we look to further amplify his creative vision and support his entrepreneurial ambitions.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement honoring legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who died Monday at the age of 84. In it, he recalls meeting Lightfoot as a child, when Trudeau’s father Pierre was prime minister in the 1970s and ’80s. “I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing yesterday of Gordon Lightfoot, one of Canada’s greatest singer-songwriters.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Ed Sheeran had strong words for a musicologist on Monday as the court hearing over alleged similarities between his hit “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get It On” entered its second week. “I think what he is doing is criminal,” Sheeran said of the prior testimony from Alexander Stewart, a musicologist hired as an expert witness by Gaye’s estate, according to the New York Times. “I don’t know why he’s allowed to be an expert.” Sheeran, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Publishing are being sued by three heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend, who is the credited co-writer with Gaye on the 1973 song.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Celebrating the 10 th anniversary of her hit “Brave,” Sara Bareilles has announced the “Brave Gowns Collection,” a series of garments for children’s hospitals in partnership with the California-based company of the same name, started by Summer Germann, who lost her own younger brother to cancer.  The collection includes a line of colorful hospital gowns for children intended to provide an alternative to traditional patient wardrobe. Dupporters can gift these gowns to children in hospitals across the United States or contribute a donation of any amount. Head here for more information. Bareilles said, “Over the years, I have seen healthcare communities adopt ‘Brave’ as an anthem — weaving my song into all kinds of stories of patients and their families as they face different challenges and continue to meet each moment with resilience and grace. I am so inspired by the very difficult work being done on the front lines by our health care facilitators and hospital staff and especially by the young patients in hospitals all over the country showing up every single day, even when it’s hard, with bravery and strength. This collection is meant to remind them all HOW BIG THEIR BRAVE IS and how much we love them!”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Ed Sheeran has announced details for the “- Tour” (pronounced “Subtract Tour”), a special run of dates set to take place in theaters and auditoriums in 14 cities across North America. The shows, mostly with singer-songwriter Ben Kweller in support, will take place in between dates on his massive stadium tour — titled  “+ – = ÷ x Tour” (pronounced “Mathematics Tour”) — which was announced last fall. Sheeran is using Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan technology for the theater dates. Registration opens on Friday, April 28 at 10 a.m. ET and closes on Sunday, April 30 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The Verified Fan onsale is set to begin on Tuesday, May 2 at 10 a.m. local venue time.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Kari Krome, a songwriter for the 1970s all-female rock band the Runaways, has filed a lawsuit against the group’s late manager, Kim Fowley, and longtime KROQ DJ and nightclub owner Rodney Bingenheimer, alleging that both of them sexually assaulted when she was a minor. The news was first reported by Rolling Stone. “Plaintiff, Kari Krome [legal name: Carrie Mitchell] is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, sexual battery, assault, and molestation at the hands of Defendant Rodney Bingenheimer,” the lawsuit, obtained by Variety, reads in part. “When Plaintiff was approximately 13 and 14 and 15 years old, Defendant Rodney Bingenheimer and Defendant Kim Fowley used their roles, status, and power as adults, as well as their connections to and work in the music industry to gain access to manipulate, exploit, and sexually assault Plaintiff in the State of California, County of Los Angeles. As a result of Defendant Rodney Bingenheimer’s and Defendant Kim Fowley’s sexual abuse and assault, Plaintiff has suffered severe emotional, physical and psychological distress, including shame, and guilt, economic loss, economic capacity and emotional loss.”

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 In the wake of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing examining on Ticketmaster’s powerful presence in the live-entertainment market, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) today introduced legislation intended to improve competition in live event ticketing markets. Without naming the company, the announcement notes that “Today’s primary ticketing market is dominated by one company that by some estimates has locked up 70 to 80 percent market share and has used its dominance to pressure venues to agree to ticketing contracts that last up to ten years, insulating it from competition.”  Titled the “Unlock Ticketing Markets Act,” the legislation aims to “help restore competition to live event ticketing markets by empowering the Federal Trade Commission to prevent the use of excessively long multi-year exclusive contracts that lock out competitors, decrease incentives to innovate new services, and increase costs for fans,” referencing ticketing companies’ practice of exclusive contracts with venues and promoters.

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. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor + Reach Music Publishing has acquired both the master and publishing rights of heavy metal legends and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Judas Priest’s first two albums, “Rocka Rolla” and “Sad Wings of Destiny,” from Gull Entertainments. According to the announcement, Reach will be working in partnership with Judas Priest on these two albums and is planning a variety of projects to be announced later this year, including special releases for the 50th anniversary of “Rocka Rolla” in 2024. The majority of the group’s catalog was initially released on Sony Music’s Columbia or Epic labels but the first two albums, released in 1974 and 1976 respectively, had been owned by Gull for nearly 50 years.  

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor For those without long memories, Everything But the Girl are a British duo that first emerged in the early 1980s as a sort of neo-jazz outfit combining Tracey Thorn’s virtuoso but downcast vocals and Ben Watt’s formidable guitar playing. Over the next 15 years they morphed impressively through different styles — from Smiths-style jangly alt-rock to the slick pop of “The Language of Life” — but with 1994’s “Amplified Heart,” electronics began to enter their latest jazz-trio-ish incarnation. And when house music producer Todd Terry’s dancefloor-driven remix of that album’s “Missing” became a surprise global hit, Watt immediately embraced the then-burgeoning drum n’ bass scene in the U.K. and within months was behind the turntables for nearly all of the group’s live sets. The next two albums, “Walking Wounded” and “Temperamental,” evolved this sound, with beats and atmospheric keyboards creating the backdrop for Thorn’s increasingly soulful singing.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The electronic-music dream team of Skrillex, Fred Again and Four Tet — which recently played a rapturously received five-hour set at Madison Square Garden — will close out the Coachella festival this weekend, sources tell Variety.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Amy Grant, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Maren Morris, Margo Price, Mickey Guyton, Kelsea Ballerini and dozens of other top Nashville musicians are calling for the Tennessee General Assembly to pass “common sense gun safety legislation” before lawmakers end their session a few days from now, according to a report in the Tennessean. (A complete list of signees is below.) The letter calls for extreme risk protection laws and legislation strengthening requirements around secure storage of firearms. The letter was drafted after of the deadly Covenant School shooting last month, in which three adults and three nine-year-old children were killed. It was the 19 th shooting at a school or university in 2023 alone — one of hundreds of mass shootings in a country with a government that, largely due to Republican obstruction, refuses to pass more-thorough gun-control laws.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In an unusual move that seems intended to eliminate age-discrimination in music releases, BMG, one of the world’s largest music companies, announced Tuesday that it has become the first global music company to abandon the “outdated” industry distinction between “frontline” — a.k.a. new releases — and older catalog recordings. The company, which notes that older catalog recordings account for up to three quarters of revenue in the streaming era, will fully integrate its new release and catalog recordings businesses. CEO Hartwig Masuch, who has led the company since its 2008 relaunch, said, “Music fans demonstrate on a daily basis that they reject the music industry’s outdated privileging of new music over older music. Music is music regardless of its age. Great artists and great music have no expiry date and we believe it is time for the music industry to reflect that.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Lana Del Rey, Boygenius and Maggie Rogers will headline the Washington, D.C.-area’s longrunning All Things Go festival, taking place at Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion for two days: Saturday September 30 and Sunday October 1. Also on the bill are Carly Rae Jepsen, Mt. Joy, Muna, Arlo Parks, Lizzy McAlpine, Tegan And Sara and Fletcher and more. Last year’s edition sold out with Lorde, Mitski and Bleachers headlining. ALL THINGS GO FESTIVAL 2023 LINEUP SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The Coachella festival probably has more top-shelf musical talent in one place at one time than any other event in the world, and 2023’s day one was no exception: All three Boygeniuses — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — joined Muna for an afternoon finale, the two surviving members of De La Soul united with Gorillaz for their 2005 joint hit “Feel Good Inc.,” and Metro Boomin’s hour-long set featured more guests than a DJ Khaled album, with the Weeknd taking the stage for six songs and features from Future, 21 Savage, Diddy, Don Toliver, Mike Dean and more. Less successful was a hotly rumored team-up of main-stage headliner Bad Bunny with Post Malone, which was hobbled by major sound problems — “Something happened to el cabron cable!” Bunny fumed — but his duets with Jowell & Randy and Nengo Flow and Jhay Cortez were more successful (hey, there’s always next weekend). Elsewhere, Kaytranada brought out Kali Uchis and Amine, and the National’s Aaron Dessner joined Taylor Swift at — wait, that was a different concert…

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor It is no understatement to say that Timbaland is one of the most influential and successful songwriter-producers of the last three decades: Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Madonna, Drake, Bjork and even Chris Cornell are just the best-known of the literally hundreds of artists the man born Timothy Zachery Mosely has worked with since the Virginia-born, Miami-based hitmaker first popped onto the scene with records by Aaliyah and Ginuwine in the mid-1990s. His monumentally prolific musical output slowed down to normal speed for a few years while he focused on a multitude of other projects — most prominently “Verzuz,” the pandemic-spawned rap/R&B battle series he launched with fellow hitmaker Swizz Beatz, which he says has a top-secret announcement coming that will “take us to a whole other level”; and Beatclub, a curated platform for producers and songwriters to sell beats, demos and other song elements to artists, brands and music supervisors.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor SZA will bring her dazzling ‘S.O.S.’ tour to Europe and then back to North America this summer and fall, the singer announced on Wednesday. The show, in support of her recent blockbuster album of the same name, will feature 10 dates across Europe — with highly touted British singer Raye in support — before returning to North America for another 23 shows. Produced by Live Nation, the European leg of the tour kicks off June 1 in Amsterdam at Ziggo Dome, making stops in Paris, Berlin, London, and more before wrapping up in Dublin at 3Arena on June 21. The S.O.S. Tour will then circle back to North America, kicking off on September 20 in Miami at Kaseya Center, and making stops in Brooklyn, Houston, Los Angeles and more before wrapping up in Phoenix at Footprint Center on October 29. See full routing below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The legendary New York outdoor venue Forest Hills Stadium has unveiled its 2023 season, marking the 100th anniversary of the stadium and the ten-year anniversary of its renovation. The new season will feature around 30 music and comedy acts including Boygenius, the Strokes, Duran Duran, Dave Matthews Band, LCD Soundsystem, Fall Out Boy, Zach Bryan, Kevin Hart, Maggie Rogers, Weezer, Lane 8, The Smile, Arctic Monkeys, Jungle, plus the inaugural Head In The Clouds New York Music & Arts Festival and the return of Rock the Bells Festival, celebrating the 50th year of hip hop. Additionally, The New York Pops – the 78-musician independent pop orchestra will perform with Jason Mraz. The full lineup to date appears below; more shows will be announced in the coming weeks.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Drake is no stranger to taking jabs in his songs, and in his new single “Search & Rescue,” he’s apparently taking one at his frenemy Kanye West: The song features dialogue of West’s estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, apparently talking about divorce. “I didn’t come this far, just to come this far and not be happy,” Kardashian’s vocal fry-laden voice is heard speaking to her mother, Kris Jenner, on their reality show. “Okay, that’s fair,” Jenner replies. Kardashian then says, “Yep, I saw it on the internet.” The song’s lyrics are standard Drake fare about the travails of being a rich superstar looking for love: “I need someone to be patient with me/ Someone to get money with, not take it from me/ Look, they don’t even need to be as famous as me/ I don’t think I’ll meet them at the places I be,” raps Drake for the song’s chorus.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Vivian Trimble, a multi-instrumentalist and singer best known for her 1990s work with Luscious Jackson, died Tuesday after a battle with cancer, a rep for the band confirms to Variety. She was 59. A dancer and choreographer as well as a musician, Trimble (pictured above, far right, with the group in 1995), also released collaboration albums with Luscious Jackson singer-bassist Jill Cunniff in 1995 as the Kostars, and an album with Breeders bassist Josephine Wiggs as Dusty Trails, which featured guest vocals from Emmylou Harris.A post shared by lusciousjackson (@lusciousjackson) Born to classical musicians, Trimble was raised in France and the U.S. and spoke three languages. She attended Oberlin College and met Cunniff in 1991 when both were teaching GED adult education classes in New York.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Over the past few weeks it’s been mortifying, amusing and ultimately inspiring to witness the almost real-time reactions of the Cure’s founder/frontman Robert Smith to the hell-on-earth that is the concert-ticket purchasing process — and roll up his sleeves and do something about it. While high prices, availability issues and a bevy of vaguely defined “service fees” could be expected for such box-office record-breakers as Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, Smith was as surprised as anyone to see the prices on his group’s “Lost World” tour, its first for several years. While the group had managed to avoid such controversial policies as platinum packages and variable pricing, Smith was appalled to see hefty service fees added to the cost of “Verified Fan” tickets, which are intended to protect fans by keeping tickets out of the hands of scalpers, for the tour.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The three men convicted of murdering rapper XXXTentacion in a 2018 robbery in Florida were sentenced to life in prison Thursday, according to NBC Miami and multiple news reports. Dedrick Williams, Michael Boatwright and Trayvon Newsome appeared in a Broward County courtroom, where Judge Michael Usan handed down the life sentences, which are mandatory in the state. The three men will have no chance for parole or early release. The late rapper’s manager, Solomon Sobande, the manager for the rapper whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy, read a statement on behalf of the family during the sentencing, and referenced XXXTentacion’s son, who was born after he died.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Diddy says he’s paying Sting $5,000 per day for sampling the Police frontman’s 1983 blockbuster hit “Every Breath You Take” on his own 1997 song “I’ll Be Missing You.” Diddy tweeted Wednesday in response to a resurfaced video clips from a 2018 interview Sting did with the Breakfast Club. As noted by the Shade Room, the clips shows interviewer Charlamagne Tha God asking Sting to confirm whether Diddy pays him $2,000 daily for sampling the song on “I’ll Be Missing You.” Sting says yes, “for the rest of his life,” to laughter, and then confirms that Diddy asked for permission to sample the hit after his own song was released.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Ray Shulman, a multi-instrumentalist known for his work with the progressive-rock band Gentle Giant and later a successful producer for the Sundays, Bjork’s early band the Sugarcubes, and many others, died on March 30. He was 73. The news was announced by his brother and Gentle Giant bandmate Derek, who wrote in a statement: “I am deeply saddened to announce that my younger brother and my best friend Ray Shulman passed away on March 30th at his home in London. I was with him until the end as he bravely battled a long illness. At least I know he is now at peace. “Ray really was a genius in so many ways. He was an incredible composer, musician, music producer and tech wizard. Together with myself and my elder brother Philip he was a founding member of Simon Dupree & The Big Sound and subsequently Gentle Giant. He went on to produce artists like the Sundays, the Sugarcubes, Ian McCulloch and many more. More recently he devoted his tech and musical expertise in authoring and remixing other artists like Jethro Tull, Genesis, King Crimson and many more.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Primary Wave Music has struck a partnership with multiple Grammy and Juno Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan that sees the company acquiring a majority stake in her songwriting and recorded-music catalog. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it includes such hits as “Angel,” “I Will Remember You,” “Hold On,” and more. Following the success of her 1993 breakthrough album, “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” the singer has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, received three Grammy Awards and twelve Juno Awards and has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and 13-Time Grammy winner Pharrell Williams will be honored by the Recording Academy at its annual Grammys on the Hill Awards, taking place on April 26. The event is intended to bring together congressional leaders and music makers to recognize those who have led the fight for creators’ rights, and the three will be honored for their contributions to support music creators. Special guests and attendees will be announced in the coming weeks.  “Grammys on the Hill is a celebration like no other, spotlighting music’s unifying power as we bring together our nation’s leaders with some of the most renowned artists in the world,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “It’s a privilege to honor Pharrell alongside Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senator Cassidy, all of whom have fought tirelessly for pro-music policy that protects the creatives that make up our community.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor On May 30, Foo Fighters will headline the opening night of a new Washington D.C. venue called the Atlantis, an intimate 450-capacity room opened by independent promoter I.M.P., which also owns and operates area venues the 9:30 Club and the Anthem and operates the Lincoln Theatre and Merriweather Post Pavilion. The venue kicks off the season with a robust opening lineup that includes Maggie Rogers, Parliament Funkadelic, Yo La Tengo, Darius Rucker, Joan Jett, Tove Lo, Jeff Tweedy, Tank and the Bangas, Portugal. The Man, and Billy Idol, among others (full lineup below). The new club was accidentally announced by D.C.-area native Dave Grohl in September of 2021, when Foo Fighters played the re-opening night of the long-running 9:30 Club after months of pandemic shutdown. He said I.M.P. was going to open a new, smaller venue fashioned as a near replica of the original 9:30 Club, where he got his start. He gave no additional details but added, “We’ll probably be the band that opens that place, too, right?”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor This op-ed is jointly signed by the advocacy organizations the Songwriters of North America (SONA), the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), and the Music Artists Coalition (MAC). If you love songwriters and hate the many ways songwriters are underpaid, paid slowly, or not paid at all, please read the following: There is over a quarter billion dollars of mechanical-royalty income related to songs that were streamed between 2018 and 2022 that has not been paid — and there is no guidance on when it will. Why? Eyes down. The Mechanical Licensing Collective (“MLC”) is an organization responsible for receiving mechanical royalties from streaming services, matching the royalties for songs to the appropriate songwriters, and distributing that income to songwriters and publishing companies accordingly. The MLC is currently holding $373 million dollars in mechanical royalty income for songs streamed between 2018 and 2022. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Three male suspects were arrested Thursday in connection with the alleged assault and robbery of rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine at a Florida gym last week, law-enforcement officials announced Thursday. The suspects – Rafael Medina, Jr., 43, Octavious Medina, 23, and Anthony Maldonado, 25 – were in custody, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet late Thursday. The rapper (real name: Daniel Hernandez) was transported from an LA Fitness Gym to a hospital on March 21 after being injured when “an altercation occurred inside the business between several individuals,” the sheriff’s office said last week. His injuries were said to be non-life-threatening.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor BMG posted its strongest year of growth in 2022, with annual revenues of $911 million (up 30% over last year) and made more than $400 million worth of acquisitions in the booming catalog market, the company announced Thursday in its annual earnings report. The company’s annual operating EBITDA was up by more than 35% to $205 million. Founded in 2008, the Berlin-based company has been a steady presence in the music industry, basing its strength on tried-and-true artists and catalogs that range from Adam Lambert to Cypress Hill, from T. Rex to the Trojan reggae label. Its publishing division is one of the biggest in the industry, and it has made bold moves into the music documentary business — including a major stake in the critically lauded David Bowie doc “Moonage Daydream.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As expected, a new hard rock festival called Power Trip, from the founders of Coachella, has announced its lineup: Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Tool. It will take place at Coachella’s home base of the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., Oct.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Amazon Music is paying tribute to hip-hop’s vast influence on music, culture, and society with “50 & Forever,” a program in celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, intended to honor the music’s legacy and champion the artists writing the next 50 years of its history. Created by Rotation — the hip-hop and R&B brand from Amazon Music — “50 & Forever” will include curated events, livestreams, playlists, original content, and new music, spanning Amazon Music, Twitch, Audible, Prime Video, and Amp.  The celebration will feature some of the most important names in hip-hop, from hip-hop’s Golden Era through present day, including J.