Jem Aswad-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor It was billed as a celebration of “the life and legacy of the late David ‘Trugoy the Dove’ Jolicoeur and the influence and impact of De La Soul,” but of course “The D.A.I.S.Y. Experience” ended up being a lot more than that. It was a musical wake for De La co-founder Dave “Trugoy” Jolicoeur, who died less than a month ago; it was a family reunion for the people around the long-running group and their literal families; and it was a long, long overdue celebration of the release on streaming services of the group’s first six albums — most notably, their culture-shifting 1989 debut, “3 Feet High and Rising,” which changed the sound and face of hip-hop, making it psychedelic, funny, suburban, stoner and fun in ways that the art form, which previously had been almost entirely aggressive and street, had not previously been. De La’s first six albums had been caught in a legal morass for more than two decades (head here for more on that), and it’s finally over.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Disney+ will celebrate Miley Cyrus’ forthcoming eighth studio album with a special event titled “Miley Cyrus ‒ Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions).” Cyrus serves as executive producer on the music-focused special from Disney Branded Television, which will feature songs from the album. The special is set to premiere on Friday, March 10, at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST on Disney+, and will feature Cyrus performing songs from “Endless Summer Vacation,” including her hit single “Flowers,” seven additional tracks from the album, one of her chart-topping classic hits and a special performance with Rufus Wainwright. The “Backyard Sessions” are a series that Cyrus began in 2012 for her fans. Viewers were quickly taken with the experience of watching the singer and her band perform in an outdoor setting, and “Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions)” serves as a continuation.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Not that anyone should define themselves by awards, but it’s telling that Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis has been nominated in three unusually far-reaching Grammy categories: R&B performance, dance recording and musica urbana abum, the latter for her sultry 2020 Spanish-language second full-length, “Sin Miedo (Del Amor Y Otros Demonios).” And in the 11 years since “Drunken Babble,” her awesomely titled first mixtape, Uchis has collaborated with Tyler, the Creator, SZA, Gorillaz, Snoop Dogg, Mac Miller, Steve Lacy, Rico Nasty, Kaytranada (their collaboration on “10%” scored her the Grammy dance win), and lots of others — but her biggest hit is her own “Telepatía,” which was the first song by a female solo artist to top Billboard’s Latin songs chart in almost a decade (and earned her the Crossover award at Variety’s 2021 Hitmakers).

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ virtual concert — which opened in a specially built London arena last May and has sold more than 1 million tickets — will go on a global tour, Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge confirmed during the company’s earnings call on Thursday. “Plans are now in development to take ‘ABBA Voyage’ around the world,” Grainge said on the call. Presumably, that means the show will be playing in specially modified arenas in major cities across the globe. Contacted by Variety, reps for ABBA and Universal, the group’s label, did not immediately have further information. While details are slim and the news is not a shock, it is the first official confirmation that the show — a multi-multi-million-dollar project, nearly six years in the making, that saw George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic using motion-capture technology to create “ABBA-tars” of the group as they looked in 1979 playing a 90-minute concert of their most-loved songs — will play somewhere besides the London theater. While technically not a hologram show, “Voyage” represents a new peak in that type of technology — the four bandmembers, who are now in their seventies, spent many hours performing for the motion-capture cameras to appear as lifelike as possible. It has received rave reviews nearly across the board.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Leonard Cohen’s children and heirs, Lorca and Adam Cohen, have filed a motion accusing the legendary singer-songwriter’s former manager, Robert Kory, and his legal representatives of forgery and asking the court to remove him from the role of trustee, to compel him to turn over the estate’s assets, and return the money he has earned from his activity in that role. The motion, which follows a probate petition filed last fall, cites a deposition wherein Kory’s former attorney admits to removing a page from Cohen’s signed trust after the singer’s death and replacing it with one stating that Kory is the primary trustee — a felony.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor On the morning after the BRIT Awards the night before, the U.K. music industry generally opts for a long lie-in. But 2023 BRITs chairman Damian Christian was up early – despite it being a Sunday – to receive an email from ITV bosses telling him that the show had posted “great numbers.” The telecast peaked at 3.9 million viewers, up from 2.7 million last year, with a further 1.2 million streams of the show on streaming service ITVX. The ceremony also scored its highest share (54%) of 16-34-year-old viewers in more than a decade, confirming the big move to Saturday night had paid off. “Although it was great getting the Saturday night, there was still no guarantee people were going to watch it,” Christian tells Variety in an exclusive interview. “For us to do a show for two hours, full of music and for everyone to engage with it is a massive result.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor If you’ve been to enough concerts, there’s a feeling you recognize when a new-ish artist’s career is about to blast off — when the audience isn’t just singing along with the hit but with nearly every song, half of them with hands over hearts, many dressed in the artist’s merch or artist-identifying outfits, and at least a few singing emphatically, with tears and/or mascara running. That feeling isn’t always accurate, but it was present at Billie Eilish concerts in 2019 and Lorde’s club shows in 2013 and even the Killers almost 20 years ago — and without setting the bar unfairly high, it was definitely in the air Chappell Roan’s packed concert at New York’s 1,500-capacity Webster Hall on Tuesday night.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, Latto, Gloria Estefan and Lainey Wilson will be the featured artists for iHeartMedia and SeeHer’s third annual “iHeartRadio SeeHer Hear Her: Celebrating Women Who Make Music and Culture,” a celebration of women who make music and influence change and culture. The event will highlight successful and influential female artists in music through interviews with Latto, Wilson and Estefan (joined by her daughter Emily) and more during a live one-hour special that will stream on iHeartRadio’s YouTube and Facebook pages on March 8 at 8 p.m. ET. It will be available on demand through March 14. In addition to interviews from Gloria Estefan, Lainey Wilson and Latto, the special will also share a moment of celebration for the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and highlight emerging female talent from SeeHer’s new artist accelerator platform, Hear Her Music, in partnership with Breakr. iHeartMedia, of course, is the largest radio network in the U.S., and SeeHer is a leading organization committed to the accurate depiction of women and girls in advertising and media.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Singer-songwriter Ben Kweller’s 16-year-old son, Dorian Zev Kweller, died on Monday, the singer confirmed. Kweller’s wife Liz wrote in a social media post that Dorian died in a car accident. Dorian was an aspiring musician and released several songs under the name Zev.A post shared by Ben Kweller (@benkweller) “There’s no way that I can be typing this but I am…. Our son, Dorian Zev Kweller, was killed last night,” Ben Kweller wrote in statement posted to Instagram on Tuesday. “He was only 16 and he was a true legend. Kindest, gentle soul, a friend to all. If you knew him, you know. We’ll never get over him as long as we’re here on earth. Please keep his spirit alive with your memories and the music he made: @reallyzev.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor J. Cole has announced the full music lineup for this year’s Dreamville Festival, set to return to Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 1-2. Cole’s festival-closing set will also feature a guest appearance from Drake. GA, GA+ and VIP two-day passes are on sale now. Day 1 on Saturday will be headlined by R&B star Usher and will also feature performances from Lil Durk, Ari Lennox, City Girls, Sean Paul, Earthgang, Jessie Reyez, and Key Glock, among others. Sunday features Nigerian superstar Burna Boy along with Summer Walker, J.I.D, GloRilla, Bas, Waka Flaka Flame, Mario, many more.  


Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Amid last week’s announcement of record earnings of $16.7 billion in 2022, Live Nation came out with guns blazing about last month’s Senate hearing examining the ticketing industry — which was fiercely, if one-sidedly, critical of Live Nation’s Ticketmaster division — and took aim at the secondary ticketing market, which it identifies as the major problem facing the industry and concertgoers worldwide. As part of that counter-offensive, it announced what it calls the FAIR Ticketing act (full details of which can be found here), the basic tenets of which state: that “artists should decide resale rules,” which would be an effort to allow artists to take the lead in preventing exploitative prices on the secondary market; would “make it illegal to sell speculative tickets,” addressing scalpers’ habit of tricking fans into buying tickets that do not yet exist; would “expand the BOTS Act,” to combat the widespread use of ticket-buying bots on the secondary market; “crack down on resale sites that are safe havens for scalpers,” which would force secondary-market sites to police the activity on their platforms more aggressively; and “mandate all-in-pricing nationally,” which would address the processing and other fees that often are not revealed until very late in the sale process.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Live Nation posted robust results in an earnings report encompassing the full 2022 year and its fourth quarter released Thursday, and looks ahead to a blockbuster 2023 amid ongoing government attention to its Ticketmaster division after the debacle surrounding last fall’s on-sale for Taylor Swift’s stadium tour. On a very busy Thursday for the company, it also launched the FAIR Ticketing Act in an effort to combat excesses in the secondary ticketing market, and plans to release a statement in response to one issued earlier in the day by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee, who led last month’s controversial Senate hearing on the ticketing industry.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Rihanna will perform the Oscar-nominated song “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner have announced. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 12. “Lift Me Up,” with music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson and lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler, is nominated for original song. It is Rihanna’s first Oscar nomination. Rihanna, who has not released a new album since 2016’s “Anti,” headlined the Super Bowl halftime show earlier this month — although her musical performance was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that she revealed she is several months pregnant with her second child. Rihanna made no reference to it during the show but was visibly pregnant and reps confirmed the news to Variety shortly after the performance.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As part of the ongoing bipartan examination of alleged anticompetitive conduct by Ticketmaster, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.) and Mike Lee (R-Ut.), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, sent evidence from their recent hearing to the Department of Justice and called on the DOJ to continue examining the company and its parent Live Nation. The bipartisan letter follows the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on America’s ticketing market in the wake of the chaotic on-sale for Taylor Swift’s 2023 stadium tour. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor It’s sitting right there in the middle of SZA’s “Woman of the Year” interview with Billboard: A “deluxe edition” of her blockbuster second album “SOS” featuring “10 additional tracks” is “coming soon,” with no further details. While SZA had mentioned in previous interviews that a deluxe edition was in the works, it literally took her five years to release a deluxe version of her 2017 debut, “Ctrl” — however it appears this one will be coming much sooner. Contacted by Variety, a rep for RCA, SZA’s label, had no further information — and considering that “SOS” already packs 23 tracks into a surprisingly not-overlong 68 minutes, it’s already got plenty of substance. However, it’s not hard to guess what some of the tracks might be.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The solo catalog of George Harrison has moved to Dark Horse Records via BMG, the company announced on Tuesday. Harrison’s family retains the rights to the catalog. Beginning in 1968, Harrison’s solo discography was released first on the Beatles’ label, Apple Records, and later Harrison’s own Dark Horse Records through Warner Bros. Records. In 2021 Universal Music’s catalog division released a deluxe anniversary edition of Harrison’s classic 1970 album “All Things Must Pass.” The 12-album catalog includes Harrison’s debut “Wonderwall Music” (the soundtrack to the film “Wonderwall”), “All Things Must Pass,” the 1973 follow-up “Living in the Material World,” his 1987 comeback album “Cloud Nine: and his final studio album, “Brainwashed,” which was released in 2002, the year after his death from cancer. It also includes the live double album “Live in Japan,” featuring Eric Clapton and the compilations “Let It Roll – Songs by George Harrison,” “Early Takes Vol 1, The Apple Years 1968-1975,” and “The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992.” In celebration of Harrison’s 80th birthday on Feb. 25, Dark Horse/BMG have released his entire catalogue in Dolby Atmos surround sound exclusively on Apple Music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Tim Rice will be the 2023 recipient of the esteemed Johnny Mercer Award at the 52nd Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner slated for Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.   The Johnny Mercer Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame and is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted in a prior year and whose body of work is of such high quality and impact that it upholds the gold standard set by the legendary Johnny Mercer. Tim Rice was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999.  

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Guns N’ Roses return to the road on a major 2023 world tour produced by Live Nation, headlining stadiums, festivals, and arenas throughout the summer and fall. The band launch this jaunt on June 5 in Tel Aviv, Israel at Park Hayarkon and will continue across Europe through July 22, wrapping in Athens, Greece. The band will continue onto North America, starting on Saturday, August 5 in Moncton, NB at Medavie Blue Cross Stadium, and will visit historic venues across the country such as Fenway Park in Boston, MA on August 21 and Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL on August 24. The tour concludes in Vancouver, BC at BC Place on Monday, October 16.  Check out the full confirmed itinerary below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Just hours after Pink dropped her ninth studio album, “Trustfall,” the singer has announced a brace of fall arena dates that will launch just a week after her summer stadium tour. Produced by Live Nation, the 14-city tour kicks off on October 12, making stops at arenas across North America, including a date at Madison Square Garden in New York. The previously announced 2023 “Summer Carnival Stadium Tour” features special guests Brandi Carlile and 2022 Hall of Fame inductees Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo on select dates, along with Grouplove and KidCutUp on all tour dates. “Trustfall” features collaborations with Chris Stapleton, the Lumineers, and First Aid Kit, as well as songwriters and producers Max Martin, Shellback, Greg Kurstin, Fred Again, Billy Mann and others. Pink will be appearing on NBC’s “Today,” CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and a a show takeover special on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor More than 30 Turkish, Syrian and local musicians will perform at benefit concerts taking place in New York on Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 18-19), in an effort to help raise funds for those affected by the devastating earthquakes that struck those countries earlier this month. The death toll from the quakes is reported to be at least 35,000, a number likely to rise in the coming days. The concerts will be held at the New York venue DROM, with 100% of ticket proceeds going to benefit the Turkish Philanthropy Fund and Basmeh Zeitooneh, a registered non-governmental organization working in Syria and Turkey — more details can be found here and here; the concerts’ program appears below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Electronic-music titans Skrillex, Fred Again and Four Tet have announced that they will be performing live at New York’s Madison Square Garden this coming Saturday, Feb. 18. Skrillex made the announcement on his Instagram account Wednesday; tickets appeared on Ticketmaster around the same time. While the three have already played last-minute shows together at London venues such as Troxy and the Electric Ballroom, this show will be the first at a major venue. They have been working together on new music in New York and on Tuesday night sold out a special Valentine’s Day pop-up show at Good Room last night.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In 2018, when industry vet David Massey was leaving his post at the helm of Island Records and returning to his longtime home at Sony Music, he originally was going to give his label a new name — possibly Work of Art, the name of the Sony-affiliated publishing and management company he also heads up. But when the possibility arose of relaunching Arista — the label founded by Clive Davis in 1974, now owned by Sony, which famously had a roster that ranged from Barry Manilow and Whitney Houston to Patti Smith — he changed his mind. “A friend had said to me, ‘Your Island is almost like the new Arista,’ which I took as a real compliment, because they had that incredibly eclectic, colorful, vibrant roster, and yet they were smaller and contained and could focus very intensely. We asked Clive and he was up for it, and it was simple as that.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor After announcing an April 2023 West Coast tour, Phish have unveiled an extensive run of summer 2023 tour dates. Starting with a two-night stand in Huntsville, AL (July 11-12), the band will continue on for performances in Alpharetta, GA (July 14-16), Wilmington, NC (July 18-19), Burgettstown, PA (July 21-22), Syracuse, NY (July 23), Philadelphia, PA (July 25-26), and a seven-night run at New York City’s Madison Square Garden (July 28-August 5). The band’s summer 2023 will cap with their traditional Labor Day Weekend run at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, CO, returning for four nights (August 31-September 3). A ticket request period is currently underway at tickets.phish.com and will end on Monday, February 27th at 12PM ET. Tickets go on sale to the public beginning Friday, March 3rd at 10AM ET. Specific ticketing information for each show is available at phish.com/tours.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Philippines-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter-producer Eyedress has signed with RCA Records and dropped a new, Valentine’s Day-themed single, “Flowers & Chocolate,” the label announced today (Feb. 13). The song’s accompanying music video, directed by Eddie Huang (author of “Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir” and director/writer of the upcoming film “Tuna Melt,” starring SZA and Chloe Cherry), finds Eyedress cruising around Los Angeles in a red convertible filled with flowers as he rushes home to impress his partner. Eyedress has moved between a multitude of musical styles since his 2019 breakthrough single “Jealous,” which has been certified platinum by the RIAA. Last year, he made his Coachella debut and released his “Full Time Lover” album, which featured the Neptunes’ Chad Hugo and got a remix from Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine on the song “House of Cards.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan selling their catalogs for $600 million, Genesis and Phil Collins for $300 million, Stevie Nicks for $100 million — over the past few years dozens of artists have sold the rights to their music catalogs for eight or nine figures. There are all kinds of reasons why this is happening: Artists are getting older and are basically estate planning, the pandemic proved that copyrights can be a great investment, and the booming market is bringing more and more buyers and sellers to the table. But what do you do with that catalog once you’ve bought it? The old approach was to basically to sit and wait for the songs to make money — through radio, sales, use in films or TV shows or advertising campaigns, Broadway shows and lots of other ways.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor It’s such a great idea, and so seemingly obvious, that it’s hard to believe no one had already thought of it: A line of horror and rock-themed pet products bearing the name Freak on a Leash, one of the most popular songs by long-running nu-metal pioneers Korn. “These premium products are created for all, paying homage to the horror and rock music we love,” singer Jonathan Davis, who created the line in partnership with promoter Danny Wimmer Presents and the non-profit animal rescue Take Me Home, wrote in an Instagram post. The series, announced last week, launches on Oct. 28 but had a preview at a special tent at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento. As the photos below show, the line runs from classy but low-key collars and leashes bearing just the logo, to items that more fully live up to the name, such as severed-hand or eyeball plushies.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Kendrick Lamar’s sold-out show at the Accor Arena in Paris on Saturday will be livestreamed exclusively through Amazon Music and Prime Video, the company announced today. The event will mark the 10-year anniversary of the release of Lamar’s monumentally influential album, “Good Kid, m.A.A.d City” and will give fans with a special look at Lamar’s 65-date world tour in support of his latest release, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” Airing live on October 22 at 2 p.m. ET, fans will be able to watch the livestream for free exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, and on the Amazon Music app. The stream will also feature sets from pgLang’s Tanna Leone and Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Baby Keem. Lamar’s performance will be available to view on-demand on Prime Video following the livestream event.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Warner Chappell Music publishing has unveiled an original podcast series called “Setting the Standard: Stories from the Great American Songbook,” in partnership with Bang/Audiation – the team behind WCM’s podcast “Final Sessions: Harry Nilsson’s Losst and Founnd.” The new podcast will “weave together story and song into a tapestry of American cultural history for songwriters, historians, musicians, artists, and fans alike,” according to the announcement. Launching on October 25th, “Setting the Standard” will feature eight episodes – each on a different legendary songwriter – starting with three-time Oscar-winning and pioneering film composer Harry Warren. Additional episodes will roll out throughout the year and spotlight composers and songwriters including Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Jule Styne, and more. Using historical sources and new discussions with scholars, critics, artists, and family members, the series will tell the stories of their lives and highlight their most iconic songs. It will also feature exclusive interviews from artists like Billy Corgan and Michael Feinstein, and top songwriters such as Justin Tranter.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Grammy and Oscar winning singer-songwriter Sam Smith has announced their fourth studio album, “Gloria,” will be released on January 27, 2023 via Capitol Records. Made with longtime collaborators Jimmy Napes, Stargate and Max Martin stablemate Ilya, the album is described in the announcement as “not only a creative revelation but something of a personal revolution for the celebrated artist. Lyrically, the subjects dive deep and wide, into contemporary narratives around sex, lies, passion, self-expression and imperfection.” Smith says, “It feels like emotional, sexual and spiritual liberation. It was beautiful, with this album, to sing freely again. Oddly, it feels like my first-ever record. And it feels like a coming of age.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor In the digital age, the traditional songbook — filled with lyrics and sheet music and maybe some pictures — can feel like a lost art, but it certainly is not to classical musicians, and particularly musical theater veterans. So even for Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Pulitzer winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, his first songbook, containing 27 songs from “Hamilton,” “Encanto,” “In the Heights” and more, was a big deal.Can’t believe there’s enough music for a collection, but here we are. I have a songbook. From In The Heights through Encanto. Wrote a foreword and everything. Overwhelmed and proud and grateful. Available now from @hal_leonard. -LMM pic.twitter.com/ydfREAs3Ym Such a big deal that Miranda’s songbook-release party in Manhattan last week was an extended-family gathering, attended by his parents, sister, nephews, friends, music teachers from several New York schools — and even Lin-Manuel’s former teachers — as well as city music programs serving underrepresented children, and fellows from the Miranda Family Fellowship Program, which aims to increase access to education and careers in the arts for emerging artists from underrepresented communities.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The courtship between art and commerce is a tricky one, but when a brand invests in music in a way that legitimately benefits not only its customers and the artist but people from the artist’s community, it’s good business all around. And at a time when the concert experience can be downright insulting to the customer — most of whom have invested horrifying amounts of money and time with no guarantee of it paying off — it’s even better business to make them feel like they’re flying first-class.   “Jack Harlow’s Louisville,” a hometown-themed concert sponsored by American Express and exclusively for card holders, was basically like a large version of one of those corporate events most humans only read about, crossed with a really rich friend’s kid’s sweet sixteen party. It was held at Brooklyn Steel, an 1,800-capacity, five-year-old venue with a spacious upstairs balcony (which was used as VIP for this event) that includes a sunken terrace that’s basically the equivalent of box seats (and was ultra-VIP).

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor This past spring, as the omicron wave subsided and the world began a ready-or-not return to something resembling normal, the floodgates opened and thousands of musicians returned to the road. Audiences flocked to arenas and big theaters see Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Elton John and many others. Coachella launched the festival season with a bang, and smaller clubs began to cautiously figure out how to put on shows in tight spaces. It was a bumpy start — many acts (even Sir Elton and Bon Jovi) had to cancel or postpone shows because of positive Covid tests — but a start, nonetheless. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino says ticket sales are on their way to a record year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor TikTok parent ByteDance has begun talks with music labels about expanding its music-streaming service into more than a dozen markets in a move that would place it in direct competition with Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming services, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, the initial plan is to expand the company’s Resso service, which is currently only available in India, Indonesia and Brazil, into more than a dozen markets, although the U.S. is not said to be part of the next phase of expansion. The Journal’s sources say significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, but ByteDance wants the service to eventually be integrated within TikTok and to serve as a major platform for distributing music around the world.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Bruno Mars has announced that Silk Sonic — the R&B duo consisting of him and Anderson .Paak — will not submit their album “An Evening With Silk Sonic” for Grammy consideration, he told Rolling Stone. “We truly put our all on this record, but Silk Sonic would like to gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually, bow out of submitting our album this year,” Mars said. “We hope we can celebrate with everyone on a great year of music and partake in the party. Thank you for letting Silk Sonic thrive.” The album’s lead single, “Leave the Door Open,” was released in April of 2021 and won four Grammys for which it was nominated at the 2022 awards, including album and single of the year. The album was released last November and thus of last year and is not only eligible for 2023 awards, but was expected by nearly all prognosticators to be a top contender for album of the year .

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor BMI is changing to a for-profit business model, the company announced to its staff in an internal email Wednesday morning. The performing rights organization, like most across the globe, had previously operated broadly on a not-for-profit basis, like its chief U.S. competitor ASCAP, since it was founded in 1939. However, as for-profit PROs, notably SESAC and the relatively new Global Music Rights, launched in the U.S., the restrictions of that model began to limit BMI’s opportunities. BMI attempted a sale last year but did could not come to terms with potential buyers. CEO Mike O’Neill tells Variety, “We realized that we needed to make certain changes to the organization in order to be even more competitive in the future. As you know, there’s lists of companies that waited too long to change. And as a result, you know, they’re no longer in business.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Julie Greenwald has been elevated to chairman & CEO of the newly created Atlantic Music Group. In her new post, Greenwald oversees Atlantic Records — including the Atlantic, Atco, Big Beat, and Canvasback labels — as well as 300 Elektra Entertainment, which encompasses 300, Elektra, Fueled by Ramen, Roadrunner, Low Country Sound, DTA, and Public Consumption. Greenwald and Craig Kallman will continue to jointly lead Atlantic Records, with Kallman continuing as chairman & CEO. Late last year, the company launched 300 Elektra Entertainment with Kevin Liles as chairman-CEO, merging the two labels as part of Atlantic parent Warner Music’s acquisition of 300 Entertainment.