Recording Academy Invites Nearly 4,000 Musicians and Professionals to Join

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music As this album’s cover artwork suggests — it appears to show a restaurant table with one man drinking tea and eating baked beans, and the other drinking syrup — a full-length collaboration album between British avant singer-songwriter James Blake and psychedelicized Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty might not have been on anyone’s prediction list for 2024. But even knowing both artists’ predilection for the unexpected, it’s a surprisingly symbiotic alliance.

Paolo Nutini will take to the stage of Paisley Town Hall on Tuesday, August 6, for a very special gig in aid of two charities.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In a brief Instagram Live video Wednesday, Donald Glover — aka Childish Gambino — somewhat clarified the burst of unclear messaging about his new album and film that appeared on the Internet the previous night.CHILDISH GAMBINOLITHONIAJULY 2 pic.twitter.com/Hqg3jaSoVa Several online posts stated that he has a project titled “Lithonia” arriving on July 2, which was accompanied by an official-looking graphic and a photograph of letters projected onto a wall simply stating “Bando is coming.” All of those things were consistent with the cryptic messaging he’s been dropping for the past few weeks via his Gilga Radio show and website — Lithonia is a city near Atlanta, setting of his popular television series; Bando is part of the title of his next album and film — but it was unclear where these messages came from, although some pointed to a post that appeared briefly on the streaming distributor Audiomack before being taken down. In a rambling talk Wednesday night on Instagram Live — that was frequently paused by poor connectivity — as he wandered around his beloved California farm, Glover said that what is arriving on July 2 is a single titled “Lithonia” that is apparently a prequel to the album.

Large numbers of Child Benefit claimants have been contacted by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over delayed payments. Roughly 577,000 people were affected by a "processing error" that left them short on cash.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that it is extending invitations to 487 to join the membership ranks of the Oscar organizer. If all accept, it will bring the Academy’s total membership to 10,910, of which 9,934 would be voting members.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It is a plight common to most professional songwriters: Everyone knows their songs, but few people know who they are. And it’s hard to think of a more vivid example of that syndrome than Gerry Goffin, Carole King’s late ex-husband and longtime writing partner, who was responsible for the lyrics of such timeless songs as “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?,” “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman,” “Up on the Roof,” “The Loco-Motion,” “One Fine Day” and dozens more — he wrote the lyrics for a total of 114 Billboard Hot 100 hits for artists including Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Natalie Cole, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Whitney Houston, Kylie Minogue and of course, King (with whom he is pictured above, in the early 1960s).

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Rob Stone, who co-founded the influential music marketing company Cornerstone Agency and the magazine the Fader, died Monday after a battle with cancer, according to social media posts from his family and his longtime friend and co-CEO Jon Cohen. He was 55. “It is with a heavy heart and sadness we share the news of the passing of Rob Stone,” his family wrote.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Lainey Wilson and Chuck D joined U.S. Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken and YouTube’s head of music Lyor Cohen in Washington D.C.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Verzuz, the online platform launched during the pandemic by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, has struck a distribution partnership with Elon Musk’s X. The pair made the announcement during Cannes Lions conference in France on Wednesday. Earlier in the year, Swizz and Timbaland reacquired Verzuz from their previous partner Triller and now own 100% of the platform, while retaining their equity (along with the artists who participated in Verzuz) in Triller, according to the announcement.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Scooter Braun, who had unofficially stepped back from managing such top artists as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande at least two years ago, finally made it official on Monday: He is stepping back from being a manager to focus on being CEO of HYBE America, the company to which he sold his own company in 2021, and to focus on his family. He made the announcement in a nearly 1,400-word statement that follows in full: 23 years. 23 years.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Coldplay have announced the release of their tenth studio album, “Moon Music,” slated for release on October 4.
The album’s first single, “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” is due this
Friday. The album is produced by Max Martin, who has worked with everyone from Britney Spears and the Weeknd to Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande.

After the impressive display of The King's Birthday Parade in London at the weekend, another important royal procession will take place in Windsor today, Monday, 17 June.The Order of the Garter is the oldest order of chivalry in the United Kingdom and is the most senior knighthood in the British honours system which is only outranked by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. It sees those members of the Royal Family who have been honoured, attend a service at St George's Chapel, Windsor, before parading in their eye-catching dark blue mantles and Tudor bonnets with ostrich feather plumes.

LOS ANGELES — Some of Hollywood’s brightest stars headlined a fundraiser for President Joe Biden that took in a record $30 million-plus for a Democratic candidate, according to his campaign, in hopes of energizing would-be supporters for a White House contest they said may rank among the most consequential in U.S. history.George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand were among those who took the stage at the 7,100-seat Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

There aren’t many places in the UK where you can experience opera inside a cave, see a hotel where Mary Queen of Scots reputedly stayed and drink the freshest mineral water available (although you might want to add an ice cube or two), yet you can do all of this in Buxton. You’d be forgiven if your mind first springs to the bottled water when you think of the town, but there’s so much more to this beautiful town on the edge of the Peak District.

The Killers shuffled their setlist and covered The Kinks at the second show of their ‘Rebel Diamonds’ UK and Ireland tour last night (June 14) – see footage and the full setlist below.It was the band’s second show at Dublin’s 3Arena in three nights at the start of a run of greatest hits shows that the band are playing across the UK and Ireland throughout the summer.Their 21-song set included a number of changes from the previous show, including tour debuts for eight songs, including four from 2006’s ‘Sam’s Town’ in the form of ‘Enterlude’, ‘For Reasons Unknown’, ‘Bones’ and ‘Exitlude’.The also opened with ‘My Own Soul’s Warning’ from the 2020 album ‘Imploding The Mirage’, and played the title track of their most recent studio record, 2021’s ‘Pressure Machine’.In among their own material, the band also indulged in a cover of The Kinks’ 1982 single ‘Come Dancing’.In addition, five tracks from 2004 debut album ‘Hot Fuss’ got an airing, including ‘Andy, You’re A Star’, which they only recently revived on stage for the first time in seven years.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Jeremy Tepper, a musician, journalist, executive, program director of SiriusXM’s “Outlaw Country” channel and for decades a leading light of the Americana/ alt-country movement, died Friday of a heart attack. Singer Laura Cantrell, Tepper’s wife of 27 years, confirmed the news on social media. He was 60.

EXCLUSIVE: Leander Suleiman will play comedy writer Anne Beatts in Sony Pictures’ film SNL 1975 (working title), based on real-life behind-the-scenes accounts of the opening night of Saturday Night Live, Deadline has learned.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The Songwriters Hall of Fame, which staged its annual awards ceremony on Thursday night, is an institution and an event unlike any other in the music industry, even though many of its elements are hardly unique and many things about it have barely changed over decades, and possibly since it launched in 1969. Indeed, we say many of the same things about the ceremony in an article very similar to this one every year — it’s a combination of an awards show, a family reunion and a trade event that is invite-only yet features a mind-blowing array of Grammy-level, once-in-a-lifetime performances and tributes, always held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York’s Times Square.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It’s probably safe to assume that anyone who clicked on this article already knows the context of David Bowie’s culture-shifting 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” which is indisputably one of the greatest and most influential albums of the rock era. If not, play the album immediately, click here and here — and save “Rock and Roll Star,” the sprawling new 5-CD, superfan’s-dream-come-true boxed set, for when you inevitably become a superfan yourself, because this definitely is not the place to start your relationship with the album.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The four founding members of R.E.M. performed together publicly for the first time in nearly three decades at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Ceremony in New York on Thursday night, playing an acoustic version of their breakthrough song, 1987’s “Losing My Religion.” With characteristic understatement, the group — singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry — showed their respect for the honor and the institution, their friendship and decades-long bond, and in gracious terms, fans, family, friends, and everyone who helped them along the way.