Snap Strikes Licensing Deal With Sony Music (EXCLUSIVE)

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBroadly speaking, record-label bosses tend to have similar backgrounds, rising through A&R, promotion or management ranks, usually hitting a massive success that lands them the big job. And while Max Lousada, Warner Music Group’s head of recorded music, has followed some of that model, his background is unusual by any stretch, and is reflected not just in WMG’s approach to music but in the roster itself.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBola Sete was an astonishing Brazilian guitarist whose music tread the line between jazz (he played with Dizzy Gillespie and Vince Guaraldi) and bossa nova.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn this week’s installment of Strictly Business, Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment, TaP Music’s Ed Millet and Wendy Ong go deep about the rewards and challenges of managing such prominent and pioneering artists as Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding, Caroline Polacheck, Noah Cyrus and many more.The conversation starts with Millet discussing founding the company in 2010 with his

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorApple Music has unveiled its biggest songs of the year with its annual Top 100 charts, which not only include the most-streamed songs — topped by BTS’ smash “Dynamite” but it has also shared its “Top 100 2021: Fitness” chart—spotlighting the most-played workout music across Apple Music and Fitness+— its top 100 most-Shazamed songs and its top 100 most-read Lyrics.Following “Dynamite” in the top 5 are Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” (which had the most-read

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAmong the many musicians paying tribute to the top designer Virgil Abloh, who died on Sunday at the age of just 41 after a battle with cancer, Frank Ocean took to Instagram to make a rare statement about his friend, who founded the Off-White line and was Louis Vuitton Menswear’s artistic director.“In 2018 I believe it was I called V and asked him how it was possible to play hundreds of shows a year and do numerous fashion collections a year and be a father and a

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIssa Rae has unveiled the soundtrack for the next soundtrack to her Peabody-award-winning HBO series “Insecure,” which features new songs from Saweetie — “Get It Girl,” which dropped earlier this month — Nnena, Thundercat, B.K. Habermehl, TeaMarrr and Amindi, among many others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor the most part, David Bowie’s career can be divided into eras by decade — the ‘60s, when he tried almost anything to make it (Mod-pop, Buddhism, folksinging) and mostly failed; the ‘70s, when he released some of the most exciting and innovative albums in music history; the ‘80s, when he got a taste of platinum success with “Let’s Dance” and lost his muse; and the period encapsulated in the latest career-spanning boxed set, “Brilliant Adventure: 1992-2001” — when

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIssa Rae has unveiled the soundtrack for the next soundtrack to her Peabody-award-winning HBO series “Insecure,” which features new songs from Saweetie — “Get It Girl,” which dropped earlier this month — Nnena, Thundercat, B.K. Habermehl, TeaMarrr and Amindi, among many others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorApple Music has released an expanded, exclusive holiday collection with its second annual “Carols Covered” playlist, available in Spatial Audio.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorQuality Ventures — the private equity investment arm of hip-hop and sports powerhouse Quality Control — and the Network Advisory have entered into a strategic partnership to launch Vocal, a premium multi-platform podcast and audio streaming network that occupies the intersection of music, sports, fashion and culture.The announcement was made jointly by Quality Control Media Holdings founders Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas, Quality Films President Brian

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWarner Music announced early Wednesday morning that its acquisition group has raised $535 million in a secured senior notes deal.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs expected, veteran agent Scott Clayton, who left his role as co-head of music at WME late last month, has joined UTA as co-head of its global music division and as a partner, the company announced Monday.Clayton and current UTA Global Music Co-Heads Sam Kirby Yoh and David Zedeck will together “create a powerhouse leadership trio spanning UTA’s New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville music hubs and further solidify the agency’s reach across all music genres,”

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFor the uninitiated, Idles are a monumentally powerful British hard rock band whose music is loaded with punk and hardcore influences, although it’s not accurate to label them as either.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhile recognized as a great artist in his time, much of John Coltrane’s later work was so far ahead that it took the world years, if not decades, to catch up with it.Today, in a beautiful postscript to a brilliant and all-too-short life and career, Coltrane’s masterpiece, 1965’s “A Love Supreme,” has been certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1 million albums in the U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDru Bass has joined William Morris Endeavor as a music crossover agent in hip hop and R&B, it was announced today by Kirk Sommer and Lucy Dickins, co-heads, worldwide music, WME. Bass joins the agency from UTA, where he represented such artists as Young Thug, Tierra Whack, Issa Rae’s music company RAEDIO, Emmy-nominated composer Amanda Jones, Harvey Mason Jr., Princess Nokia, Burna Boy, Lil Wayne, Michelle Williams, and Lauryn Hill.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHouston mayor Sylvester Turner has promised a “thorough review and investigation” of the tragedy at the Travis Scott-headlined festival in the city, where eight people died and more than 300 were injured as crowds surged and stampeded during Scott’s set.

Bad Bunny was such a big fan of that he had to be a part of it.The Puerto Rican artist, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, guest stars in the final season of the drug-trafficking Netflix series.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAhead of his “Astroworld” festival taking place in his Houston hometown this weekend, Travis Scott has dropped two new songs, “Escape Plan.”The songs are likely from his forthcoming album “Utopia,” which he and producer Mike Dean have teased on social media over the past few weeks.Although “Escape Plan” drew most of the initial attention upon the midnight drop — within the first 13 minutes, the audio of “Escape Plan” had 18,000 listens on YouTube and “Mafia” had

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA murderer’s row of top hip-hop producers including DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz, Mustard, The-Dream, Mike Will Made It, No I.D, Hit-Boy, Take A Daytrip and Tainy will release EPs via Mass Appeal’s “Hip Hop 50 the Soundtrack,” as part of the company’s #HipHop50 campaign in celebration of the genre’s 50th year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorGrammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Lionel Richie has signed an exclusive, global publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group, the company has announced. The deal includes songs written throughout Richie’s solo career, including smashes like “Hello,” “Lady,” “Dancing on the Ceiling,” “All Night Long,” “Say You, Say Me” and many others; he also co-wrote the charity single “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson in 1985.