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U.S. sales of vinyl albums have risen for 14 consecutive years, to $504 million in 2019. But extending that streak could be a tall order—and not just because the coronavirus pandemic has shuttered many record stores for months. The couple of dozen or so vinyl record pressing plants that still exist in the United States have been hit hard too.

In late April, audio clips surfaced that appeared to capture JAY-Z rapping several unexpected texts. Did you ever imagine you’d hear JAY-Z do Shakespeare’s “To Be, Or Not to Be” soliloquy from Hamlet? How about Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” or a decade-old 4chan meme? All of these unlikely recitations were, of course, fake: “entirely computer-generated using a text-to-speech model trained on the speech patterns of JAY-Z,” according to a YouTube description.

AEG Presents, the live music conglomerate that puts on concerts across the United States in additional to notable festivals including Coachella, has announced it will open a 30-day window for ticketholders to get refunds for shows that have been rescheduled due to COVID-19, The New York Times reports.

The Performing Rights Organizations—American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), and SESAC—have teamed up to form a new coronavirus relief fund as part of the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. The fund will focus on helping songwriters, composers, and lyricists. Make donations or apply for assistance here.

Apple Music has launched a $50 million advance royalty fund to ensure that artists will get paid and label operations can continue during the coronavirus pandemic, Rolling Stone reports. The streaming giant confirmed the news in a letter to labels (obtained by Rolling Stone). Eligible labels must have a direct Apple Music distribution deal and earn $10,000 minimum on a quarterly basis.

Late last year, it was announced that New York City’s CMJ Music Marathon would return for the first time in five years. The week-long multi-venue festival was initially launched in 1978, and ran through 2015. However following a change in ownership and a string of legal issues, the event’s future was uncertain. Now, the British platform Amazing Radio has announced the acquisition of the CMJ brand.

The digital distributor Record Union has shared a new toolkit of resources to help artists manage their mental health. The Wellness Starter Pack focuses on five elements to maintaining good health: nutrition, mindfulness, positivity, exercise, and sleep. Find introductory videos below. Learn more at the Wellness Starter Pack website.

On Friday, March 20, Paradigm Talent Agency announced to its staff that it would be conducting mass “temporary” layoffs as the live music industry stares down a year of uncertainty due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A source close to the situation tells Pitchfork that the layoff terms do not include severance.

On March 20, Bandcamp waived its revenue shares for a full 24 hours in an effort to help artists whose livelihoods have been impacted by coronavirus. Several companies followed suit, directing all revenue directly to artists on Friday.

Bandcamp has announced that for 24 hours on March 20 (from midnight to midnight PST), the site will waive its revenue shares on music sales in an attempt to “put much needed money directly into artists’ pockets.” The action is in direct response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which has had a massive effect on the music industry due to tour cancelations.

As local governments respond to the coronavirus pandemic, universities are closing and large public gatherings are being banned in an effort to quell any further spread of the disease. As many colleges are pivoting from in-person to online courses, student-run radio stations across the nation are making efforts to stay on the air.

The Grand Ole Opry announced today (March 13) that it will suspend performances that involve a live audience until April 4 “in an effort to maintain health and safety amid current COVID-19 concerns.” The Nashville, Tennessee institution posted a statement on its website stating that “the Opry’s first priority has always been the safety of our employees, guests and artists who have been key in keeping the show that made country music famous on the air every week for over 94 years.” Find the

NBC is suspending production on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers starting tomorrow (March 13). The suspensions are in response to the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), and will continue through the network’s previously planned hiatus, which was scheduled for the week of March 23.

Within the last week, two major American music festivals—the EDM-centric Ultra Music Festival in Miami and the sprawling industry gathering SXSW in Austin—have been canceled due to public health concerns about the COVID-19 virus. The French festival TomorrowLand was also canceled, and Coachella, the Indio, Calif., standard-bearer for festival culture in the U.S., has been postponed from its usual April date until October.

The famous Berlin nightclub Berghain has canceled all forthcoming “self-produced” events through April 20 due to public health concerns surrounding the spread of coronavirus, according to its website.

Thousands of people across the globe have been diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19). As the outbreak continues, organizers of large public gatherings (such as music festivals and concerts) are being forced to assess whether or not to hold their scheduled events as planned.

Tame Impala have announced a partnership with the nonprofit REVERB to reduce environmental waste while on tour behind their latest album The Slow Rush.

On March 6, SXSW canceled its 2020 festival due to concerns surrounding the recent coronavirus outbreak. It marked the first cancellation in the annual Austin event’s 34-year history. Now, SXSW’s parent company SXSW LLC has laid off roughly a third of its 175 year-round employees, according to a new report by local paper the Austin Statesman,

Goldenvoice is reportedly working to postpone both weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2020 amid concerns about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), sources tell Pitchfork. The festival is currently scheduled to take place in Indio, California from April 10-12 and April 17-19. Agents are being contacted about having artists perform on the weekends of October 9-11 and 16-18, according to reports from Billboard and Variety.

Bad Bunny’s new album YHLQMDLG will debut at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, Billboard reports. He sold 179,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, falling short of Lil Baby’s My Turn, which sold 197,000 units and is at No. 1.

She Shreds Magazine is ending its print publication and fully transitioning to the digital platform She Shreds Media. She Shreds founder Fabiola Reyna announced the news today in a letter on the magazine’s website.

Kendrick Lamar and frequent collaborator Dave Free have launched pgLang, which is described in a press release as “a new multi-lingual, at service company.” The press release continues, “pgLang is at service to creators and projects that selflessly speak with, and for, the shared experiences that connect us all.”

The Nashville music venue Basement East was “severely damaged” from the deadly tornado that swept through Tennessee, the venue announced early this morning (March 3). The venue was hosting a benefit concert for Bernie Sanders before the tornado struck. The Basement East’s co-owner Mike Grimes told Rolling Stone:

Deborah Dugan, the Recording Academy president and CEO who took over for Neil Portnow back in 2019, has been fired, Variety reports. Dugan was placed on administrative leave on January 17 for unspecified “misconduct,” igniting a heated controversy within the music industry mere days before the 2020 Grammys on January 26.

Rap icons Public Enemy are parting ways with longtime member Flavor Flav. In a statement to Pitchfork, the group wrote: “Public Enemy and Public Enemy Radio will be moving forward without Flavor Flav. We thank him for his years of service and wish him well.” Flavor Flav was a member of Public Enemy for 37 years.

K-pop group BTS have canceled four concerts in South Korea due to the recent outbreak of coronavirus. According to a statement from the band’s representatives Big Hit Entertainment, the virus has “made it impossible at this time to predict the scale of the outbreak” during BTS’ slate of concerts in Seoul, which were originally scheduled for April 11, 12, 18, and 19. The dates were meant to kick off the group’s global Map of the Soul Tour.

The annual year-end RIAA music revenues report has been released. It sees continued growth in the recorded music business, thanks to streaming, with streaming revenues totaling $8.8 billion and accounting for 79.5% of all recorded music revenue. Streaming music alone in 2019 was greater than the entirety of money generated from recorded music in 2017. Revenue as a whole jumped to $11.1 billion, with digital downloads, physical sales, and synch licensing making up the remainder of the total.

The United Kingdom’s Home Office has announced new regulations that will require musicians from the European Union to apply for Tier 5 visas in order to tour in the UK once the Brexit transition period ends in December 2020.

Spotify is expanding its database of song and album credits with a beta launch of dedicated pages for songwriters.

Apollo Masters—a manufacturing plant that supplies the lacquer used for making master discs, which are used to make vinyl records—suffered a fire on Thursday, February 6, at its manufacturing and storage facility in Banning, California, The Desert Sun reports. No employees were injured in the “devastating” blaze, which completely destroyed the facility.

Spotify has purchased The Ringer, Bill Simmons’ sports and culture site, the companies announced today (February 5). The move follows the streaming service’s expansion into podcasts. (The Ringer has 30 podcasts.) The Ringer, which was previously in partnership with Vox Media, also has a video network, film production division, and book imprint, as The New York Times notes.

Tiny Telephone, the San Francisco recording studio founded by John Vanderslice in 1997, will close its original location in the Mission District, as KQED reports.

Eminem surprise-released his new album Music to Be Murdered By earlier this month. Now, it has become his 10th consecutive No. 1 album, breaking the rapper’s tie with Kanye West for the most No. 1 debuts in a row on the Billboard 200.

The country music television network CMT has announced that women will now be guaranteed to account for half the videos played on its platforms. A tweet from the network’s account stated there will be “complete parity between male and female artists” on CMT and CMT Music.

Deborah Dugan, the Recording Academy president and CEO who took over for Neil Portnow last August, has been placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into misconduct allegations. The news comes just a week prior to this year’s Grammy Awards, which take place on Sunday, January 26. The Recording Academy confirmed the news in a statement (via Variety):

Moog Music has announced its latest synthesizer, the Subsequent 25. The instrument is the company’s new 2-note paraphonic synthesizer, and, to introduce the new machine, the company has shared a new trailer featuring original music from Flying Lotus. The video is called Building Your World, and it also features animation from graphic designer Julian House. Watch that below.