YouTube Paid $4 Billion to the Music Industry Last Year, Up 33% From 2019

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA year on from the “Blackout Tuesday,” during which the music industry paused to take a look at its racial policies and plan to reform them, how is it doing? According to both last week’s USC-Annenberg “Inclusion in the Music Business” study and a “report card” released over the weekend by the Black Music Action Coalition — a 200-plus-member organization formed around this time last year — it’s doing fair-to-badly.BMAC’s 37-page report takes a look at dozens of

Michele Amabile Angermiller Michelle Edgar is joining LiveXLive Media as head of strategic partnerships where she will work on artist and label relations in addition to liaising with consumer brands and creating partnership opportunities. LiveXLive is a global platform for livestream and on-demand audio, video, and podcast/vodcast content in music, comedy and pop culture.

Kelly Ripa captured a brilliant photo of the men in her family on Saturday and coupled with the caption it would have made an amazing greetings card. The Live with Kelly and Ryan host shared the photo on Instagram and had her fans in stitches. MORE: Kelly Ripa prepares for bittersweet end of an era in her familyHer image showed her husband, Mark Consuelos, sons, Joaquin and Michael and a man presumed to be her father-in-law all starring out over the balcony of her rooftop.  WATCH: Kelly Ripa

Sinead O’Connor has confirmed her retirement from the music industry, weeks after making similar claims and later retracting them.The Irish singer said on social media that she had been in “two minds” about retiring, but confirmed that she will now begin a new career as a writer.“This is to announce that having been in two minds about retiring I have now, in consultation with my medical team, and on their advice, decided to go ahead and retire so that I may now focus on my new career as a

Fast-rising singer-songwriter Clairo has signed with Universal Music Publishing Group, in advance of her forthcoming second full-length album, “Sling,” which was co-produced by Jack Antonoff and marks her major-label debut (on the Fader label via UMG’s Republic Records). Now 22, Clairo’s (Claire Cottrill) success story began in 2017 when her song “Pretty Girl” went viral and made her a titan in the indie-sphere; it’s clocked more than 74 million YouTube views.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe new report on “Inclusion in the Music Business: Gender & Race/Ethnicity Across Executives, Artists & Talent Teams” from the USC-Annenberg Inclusion Initiative makes no bones about how far the music industry has to go in its stated goals of gender and racial equality — even after most major music companies loudly trumpeted their commitments to advancing its efforts in those directions in the wake of Blackout Tuesday and the Black Lives Matter protests last year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBlack and underrepresented artists may be heavily represented on the charts, but the music companies that release, promote and tour those artists have a long way to go when it comes to diversity in their executive ranks, according to “Inclusion in the Music Business: Gender & Race/Ethnicity Across Executives, Artists & Talent Teams,” an authoritative new study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.

coronavirus restrictions on June 21.After figures showed that the rumoured delay could see over 5,000 events cancelled, LIVE CEO Greg Parmley says they want “transparency” from the government on the process.Parmley said: “The briefing we are seeing of a delay to our reopening later this month is devastating to the live music industry.

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If you’re of a certain age and have kids, it’s almost certain you have seen or heard ‘Roblox’ being played in the background. For a long time it was the game that isn’t ‘Minecraft’ in many households, but it gained a massive following and became a huge success all on its own.

[PIAS], the Europe-based independent music company, and Universal Music Group announced a strategic global alliance on Wednesday (June 9). According to the announcement, under the new initiative, UMG will have access to [PIAS]’ international distribution network and expertise in providing services to the independent music community through its recently rebranded, long-standing services division [Integral].

Chris Willman Music Writer+ Nick Petropoulos, who joined Arista Records early last year after an 11-year run at Glassnote Records, has been upped by Arista to oversee the label’s promotion department.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWarner Chappell Production Music has opened the doors to two new recording facilities: SkyLight Studios in Los Angeles and Sandtrack Sound in Nashville.The WCPM team partnered with David Kotch of Criterion Acoustics to redesign SkyLight Studios, a former mastering lab located in Hollywood.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOne year ago today was  “Blackout Tuesday” — during which the music industry took a work pause to protest police violence against the black community and consider its social justice policies and efforts in the wake of the murders by police of George Floyd, Breona Taylor and so many others over the years.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorYouTube paid out more than $4 billion in royalties to artists, songwriters, and rights-holders, according to a new blog post from the streaming giant’s global head of music Lyor Cohen.While the post was short on detail, Cohen did say that “YouTube has paid over $4 billion to the music industry in the last 12 months alone and has added more paid members in Q1 ’21 than in any other quarter since launch.” He also added that the money was derived from ads and premium

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSean “Diddy” Combs has teamed up with Salesforce to launch Shop Circulate, which the announcement describes as a curated digital marketplace that allows consumers to discover and buy products exclusively created and sold by Black entrepreneurs. The platform’s goal is to provide Black businesses with a platform to reach global audiences and empowers consumers to shop the world’s best Black-owned brands.