Tag Archives: pro

Shaun Clair has seen the future of rock & roll, and it’s a 3D pig. Starting in the Sixties, Clair Global, the company co-founded by Clair’s grandfather, has provided sound systems for major rock tours, from Elton John’s and the Stones’ up through more recent ones like Roger Waters’ The …

With live events greatly stalled, the pandemic era has been rich with Hollywood movers and shakers putting their money in promising startups across tech, livestreaming, and social networking. Justin Bieber and J Balvin joined manager Scooter Braun as investors in mixed-reality concert developer Wave; the Chainsmokers and Snoop Dogg were …

Five months after the federal government passed the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) to assist independent venue owners, promoters and other small live music businesses who’ve been dormant during the pandemic, applicants are finally beginning to receive grant approval notices. Getting a grant approved means venues still must wait to …

Arizona Zervas’ debut single “Roxanne” is four-times platinum in America and has more than a billion streams worldwide — but he started out as an unsigned artist self-releasing via DistroKid. That was 2019, when the DIY trend and the might of independent, non-label distributors became acutely clear to the music …

Last week, Shawn Mendes became the latest and biggest artist to launch a line of digital goods in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Mendes partnered with Genies, a company that makes 2D avatars, to design virtual versions of some of his most identifiable accessories, like his signature Fender guitar, …

Kanye West has been flooding Twitter for the last week with a sprawling rant against record companies and modern music deals, demanding that artists are given control over their own masters — and peppering photos of his home furniture and quotes from the Bible into the tweetstorm as well. Some …

Spotify and Universal Music Group announced a new licensing partnership Wednesday that could align the world’s biggest music label with the streaming service’s long-awaited “two-sided marketplace” — which would funnel additional money back from the record industry into Spotify’s pockets. The new multiyear global contract “further aligns [our] efforts to …

Where are all the women? According to Rolling Stone‘s just-published rankings of the biggest songs and albums of the first half of 2020, female artists are vastly underrepresented. Among the Top 100, there are only 19 songs and 17 albums by women. When compared with all of 2019, the number …

Carlos de la Garza can “count on one hand” the number of alternative rock records being green-lit by major labels right now. De la Garza, a drummer-turned-producer who also mixes and engineers and has worked with everyone from Bad Religion to Best Coast, remembers a more lucrative time: 10 to …

Signing an artistto a record deal is a lot like dating, says Pete Ganbarg, president of A&R over at Atlantic Records. But Ganbarg — who has brought in Twenty One Pilotsand Christina Perri, as well as the blockbuster cast albums/soundtracks to Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and The Greatest Showman —says …