The Weeknd Recalls Working With Daft Punk: ‘They’re One of the Reasons I Make Music’

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhile it was announced during the Grammy Awards on Sunday, the formation of the Recording Academy’s Songwriters and Composers Wing was not done in secret, and the Songwriters of North America, the Black Music Action Coalition, the Music Artists Coalition and the 100 Percenters responded quickly with an open letter to the new organization calling on it to eliminate the Minimum Delivery and Release Commitment (MDRC) requirement in music-publishing deals.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTonight, we come together — virtually — for the Grammy Awards, “Music’s Biggest Night,” and do our best to celebrate the music of the worst year of so many people’s lives.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWith the Grammy Awards coming up on Sunday, it’s remarkable that interim Recording Academy president/CEO Harvey Mason, jr. has time to talk with the press — although that could have been said at virtually any point in the past 14 months.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhen the 2021 Grammy Award nominations were announced in November, thousands of people were stunned to see that the Weeknd — one of the most commercially and critically successful artists of the past year, whose single “Blinding Lights” just became the first song ever to spend a full year in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 — was not nominated for any awards.The inexplicable and/or suspicious snub, the biggest in Grammy history, could only be explained as the

Kanye West has been working on his delayed ‘Donda’ album recently, according to his collaborator CyHi The Prynce.West had promised that ‘Donda’ would be released last summer, shortly after he dropped his Travis Scott collaboration ‘Wash Us In the Blood’ from the project.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSony Music Publishing has signed Grammy-winning songwriter/ DJ/ producer J. White Did It, known for his collaborations with Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, among others, to a worldwide deal.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” has been smashing records practically since it was first released late in November of 2019 — and on Monday it broke what might be the most momentous one of all: It became the first song to spend a full year in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.That dwarfs the previous record, for Post Malone’s “Circles,” which hung in for 39 weeks (it’s a bit of an inter-family record, since Post happens to be the Weeknd’s labelmate on Republic

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSteve Greenberg, founder of S-Curve Records, is leaving the company, which he founded two decades ago and sold to BMG in 2015, he confirmed to Variety.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFollowing its acquisition of select Beach Boys assets last month, Irving Azoff’s new Iconic Artist Group has made another move into the lucrative catalog acquisition marketplace by partnering with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSony Music Publishing has partnered with Silence the Shame to launch “The Soundtrack of Mental Health,” a global multi-year program which will offer songwriters, employees, and the greater music community educational trainings and support around mental health.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe latest music festival to give up on 2021 is Spain’s popular Primavera Sound Barcelona, which called off this year’s installment due to the pandemic. Tickets can be transferred to the 2022 edition, the lineup for which will be revealed on June 2; refunds will be available after that date.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUniversal Music Publishing has signed rising British singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone, whose debut EP received a rave review in Variety last fall, to an exclusive, global publishing agreement. The 21-year-old singer was voted No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSwedish singer-songwriter Zara Larsson has signed with Sony Music Publishing, the company announced Monday morning.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLive Nation has taken a timeline provided by the British government as an all-clear for the summer festival season, selling some 170,000 tickets this week to three major U.K.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn its pursuit of carbon neutrality, BMG has committed to offsetting all of its global site and employee-related greenhouse gas emissions, the company announced. In defining a long-term strategy to avoid, reduce, and offset CO2 emissions, BMG revealed it had offset over 3,000 tons of CO2 produced in 2019 by investing in Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS) certified climate protection projects.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Black Music Collective (BMC), a newly launched initiative by the Recording Academy, will host its inaugural Grammy Week event in celebration of Black creators’ and professionals’ contributions to the music industry.The event will feature performances by H.E.R., Yolanda Adams, PJ Morton and rapper and producer duo Freddie Gibbs & Alchemist.

Travis Scott doesn’t take fatherhood lightly. The rapper opened up about raising daughter Stormi on Tuesday, February 23, calling the 3-year-old his “inspiration.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSydney’s The Kid LAROI has signed a worldwide deal with Sony Music Publishing. The artist, songwriter, and producer, whose real name is Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, is currently riding the success of his song “Without You” and 2020 debut mixtape, “Fuck Love.”In his native Australia, The Kid LAROI, who is signed to Columbia Records, is the youngest solo artist to reach No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDaft Punk, one of the most influential and popular groups to emerge in the past 30 years, have announced their retirement via a video titled “Epilogue” posted Monday morning.