Sony Music’s Julie Swidler to Receive Music Biz Presidential Award (EXCLUSIVE)

By Dino-Ray Ramos

Music Biz 2020 has been postponed due to uncertainty surrounding the global health crisis.The annual industry conference was due to take place this May in downtown Nashville, but will be pushed back to August.“Thank you to our registered attendees, speakers, and sponsors for your patience and continued enthusiasm for our event in this extremely uncertain period,” comments Music Biz President Portia Sabin in a statement.

The Music Business Association’s annual Music Biz conference, held in Nashville and scheduled for May, has been postponed until August, due to ongoing coronavirus concerns. The event is now scheduled to take place from Sunday, August 16 through Wednesday, August 19, 2020 at the JW Marriott Nashville. All conference registrations and hotel reservations will be honored and automatically transferred for the postponed dates.

Morrissey, “I Am Not a Dog on a Chain” (BMG)

Sara Evans is shining a light on her influences throughout her new covers project, Copy That, due out May 15. The 13-track album features collaborations with Old Crow Medicine Show and Little Big Town’s Phillip Sweet and was co-produced by Evans and Jarrad K (Ruston Kelly, Weezer, Goo Goo Dolls). Billboard premieres the infectious first track, a cover of the Bee Gees’ 1977 hit “If I Can’t Have You,” today (March 19).

No one went into 2020 expecting the entire live music business to come to a screeching halt within the space of a week, but the spread of the coronavirus throughout the world has forced changes in virtually every industry for the foreseeable future.With artists, managers, booking agents, venue owners, executives and more scrambling for answers on how to move forward safely, Billboard's Taylor Mims (Staff Writer, Touring and Live Entertainment) will be giving daily video updates on the pandemic's

While the coronavirus pandemic has led authorities around the globe to cancel concerts and sporting events, and even shut down daily activities in some places, Mexico City is going ahead with Vive Latino — one of the most important music festivals in the country. Some acts backed out, but tens of thousands of music fans flocked on Saturday to the first day of the festival, which still expected Guns N' Roses, Carlos Vives and Zoe to be among its headliners.

MEXICO CITY -- While the coronavirus pandemic has led authorities around the globe to cancel concerts and sporting events, and even shut down daily activities in some places, Mexico City is going ahead with Vive Latino — one of the most important music festivals in the country.

After winning the 2019 Latin Grammy for best new artist, New York-based Venezuelan singer Nella has signed to Sony Music Latin, Billboard has learned.At the time of signing with Sony Music Latin’s president Alex Gallardo, she was accompanied by her mentor, Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning producer Javier Limón.“Nella is a unique voice,” Gallardo said in a statement. “She was born in Margarita, Venezuela, but it could well have been in Seville or Cádiz.

NEW YORK -- New Yorkers will awake Friday to find the coronavirus has left their their famously bustling city with no Broadway, no basketball games, no big gatherings, and a populace unnerved by an ever-worsening crisis.

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Bad Bunny’s album YHLQMDLG debuted on the March 14-dated Billboard 200 at No. 2 with nearly 179,000 album consumption units for the week ending March 5, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, making it the highest-placing Spanish-language album in the chart's history. The album’s unprecedented success shows the U.S. market’s gr

Grassroots music venues in the U.K. are to benefit from new cost-cutting measures introduced in the British government's annual budget on Wednesday (March 11).

Warner Music India officially launched today, as the company announced its newest affiliate with former Sony Music India executive Jay Mehta as managing director. His purview will also cover the other markets in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“Papicha” filmmaker Mounia Meddour was awarded the 2020 Academy Gold Fellowship Award for Women from the AMPAS during a luncheon hosted by French actress Juliette Binoche in Paris.

Outfest Fusion, an annual gathering of diverse cross-sections of the LGBTQ community in entertainment, will bestow the founder of The Blackhouse Foundation with its achievement award, the organization said Tuesday. Brickson Diamond helped to launch The Blackhouse Foundation nonprofit in 2006, an organization that offers new opportunities and a network for black filmmakers and film industry creatives.

Merlin’s newly-appointed CEO Jeremy Sirota joins the speakers lineup for The Music Business Association (Music Biz).A former senior executive within Facebook's Music team, Sirota will give his first public interview since taking the reins at the independents’ digital rights agency, in a Q&A with Music Biz President Portia Sabin.The May 12 session will cover a range of topics, from Sirota’s role at Merlin, which has distributed more than $2 billion to its almost 900 members since launching in

Sony Music Entertainment says Cox Communications deserves to pay the $1 billion jury verdict levied against it in December for facilitating a “massive scale” piracy scheme, according to a new court motion filed Friday. The motion was lodged in response to Cox’s request on Jan. 31 asking a judge to.

Alan Menken -- the award-winning composer behind some of Disney's most beloved songs -- is this year's recipient of the Max Steiner Film Music Lifetime Achievement Award.