Tate McRae, Ari Lennox, IDK and More Light Up Apple Music’s 2021 ‘Carols Covered’ Playlist

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDef Leppard and lead singer Joe Elliott, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, Living Colour, Rob Thomas, Gary Oldman and more are among the artists joining the second annual “A Bowie Celebration,” set for January 8, 2022, what would have been David Bowie’s 75th birthday.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUTA has signed musician and former Poison frontman Bret Michaels in all areas.“Bret Michaels is a true multi-hyphenate. From music and branding, to sports and reality tv he brings 1000% to all his business endeavors and we are honored to welcome him to our roster,” said David Zedeck, partner and co-head of global music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDrake has withdrawn his two Grammy nominations, a rep for the Recording Academy has confirmed to Variety.Sources tell Variety that the decision was made by Drake and his management, although his motivation was unclear at the time of this article’s publication.He was nominated for Best Rap Album for his “Certified Lover Boy” album and Best Rap Performance for his song “Way 2 Sexy” (featuring Future and Young Thug).

Doja Cat and Saweetie bring the heat for their performances at the iHeartRadio 102.7 KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball 2021 presented by Capital One at The Forum on Friday night (December 3) in Los Angeles.

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 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 EditorSpotify has unveiled its annual 2021 Wrapped campaign — where users can see the music they listened to the most all year — and with that comes the top artists, albums, songs, playlists and podcasts on the world’s largest streaming service, with more than 381 million total users.The full charts are below, but first, some stats:Globally speaking, with more than 9.1 billion streams this year, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is Spotify’s most-streamed artist of 2021,

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 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 EditorDua Lipa’s “Levitating” was the most-played song and Ariana Grande the most-played artist on iHeartRadio’s stations in 2021, according to lists released Monday morning. iHeart, which is the world’s largest radio network, calculated that “Levitating” reached an audience of nearly 1.2 billion in the U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe earliest recordings by most classic artists are dreadful. The Beatles’ early demos? Awful.

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.

Lots of stars are stepping out on the red carpet at the 2021 American Music Awards on Sunday (November 21) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

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 EditorNed Monahan, Spotify’s head of global hits and overseer of several of the platforms top playlists, is leaving the company, a rep confirmed to Variety.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJackson Browne and Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna cofounder Jorma Kaukonen will headline a star-packed lineup of artists at a benefit for the non-partisan voters’ rights non-profit Headcount, to be held at the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y.

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 EditorAs expected, Kanye West has released a deluxe version of his most recent album, “Donda,” that features more than 20 extra minutes of previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions, including “Life Of The Party” featuring Andre 3000, “Up From The Ashes,” “Never Abandon Your Family,” “Remote Control 2” with Young Thug and a new feature from Kid Cudi, and more.The new edition expands the already long album past the two-hour mark; it’s now 2:11.