Spotify debuts Concerts Near You playlist: How To Add EventsSpotify debuts Concerts Near You, a new personalized playlist that surfaces upcoming area concerts and links to buy tickets.
The post Spotify debuts Concerts Near You playlist: How To Add Events appeared first on Hypebot.

Live Music Industry News: Wasserman hires • new UTA CEO • GSPS sneak peak • Venu to share financials • Live Nation • MoreIn the latest live music industry news, global music agency Wasserman Music has added three key executives across its growing Fairs & Festivals, Tour Marketing, and worldwide agent teams.
The post Live Music Industry News: Wasserman hires • new UTA CEO • GSPS sneak peak • Venu to share financials • Live Nation • More appeared first on Hypebot.

UMG strikes partnership with HEAT to bring Lil’ Wayne, CG5 music to game developersUMG labels and artists will be 'the first to effectively distribute new tracks into gaming development tools and platforms'
Source

BMI & White Bear PR to Present "The Art of Music in Horror" at WonderCon 2025WHO: BMI®& White Bear PR are excited to present “The Art of Music in Horror” panel at WonderCon 2025. The discussion will feature BMI composers Charlie Clouser (Saw), Bobby Krlic (Midsommar), Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th) and Dara Taylor (The Invitation), and will be moderated by White Bear PR’s Chandler Poling. BMI’s Director of Film, TV & Visual Media Louie Stephens will introduce the panel. WHAT: “The Art of Music in Horror” panel will feature an ensemble of renowned BMI composers who will discuss the unique challenges and creative process involved in scoring horror films and television. Discover how music elevates the fright factor and plays a key role in shaping iconic scenes that haunt audiences long after the credits roll. WHERE: Anaheim Convention Center (800 W Katella Ave. Anaheim, CA 92802)                Panel Room: 213CD       WHEN: Saturday, March 29, 2025TIME: 7:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M. ***Press is invited to conduct one-on-one interviews with panelists prior to the panel, upon request. Contact Chandler Poling (chandler@whitebearpr.com) for more details.*** ABOUT THE PANELISTS:Charlie Clouser is a composer who specializes in dark and moody scores for film and television. He is best known for his intense scores for all ten of the SAW horror movie franchise and has also scored action films like Death Sentence, Dead Silence, Unhuman, and Resident Evil: Extinction, as well as over 250 episodes of television series like Fox’s Wayward Pines, CBS’s Numb3rs, NBC’s Las Vegas and the fan-favorite main title theme for Fox’s American Horror Story.Bobby Krlic is a British musician, producer and composer. In addition to his work collaborating and scoring both film and television with Atticus Ross, Krlic has been releasing his own often harrowing electronic music for the better part of the past decade under the moniker of The Haxan Cloak. Harry Manfredini has scored nearly 250 films and television shows to date. He is best known for his iconic scores on horror films like the Friday the 13th franchise, Wishmaster, Swamp Thing and House. Manfredini’s multi-faceted catalog also includes comedy films like Spring Break, and action films like Deep Star Six, Aces, Iron Eagle, and The Omega Code. Additionally, he’s scored numerous TV dramas for Lifetime and Hallmark, as well as many award-winning children’s films like Corduroy and A Boy, A Dog, And A Frog.  Dara Taylor has emerged as a fresh voice in the world of scoring music to picture. Her credits include Amazon Studios’ The Tender Bar, Universal Pictures’ Strays, Amazon’s The Boys: Diabolical, Warner Brothers’ Scoob! Holiday Haunt, the Lionsgate comedy Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar, which she co-scored with Christopher Lennertz, Netflix’s and Shondaland’s Black Barbie, and Netflix’s Meet Me Next Christmas, The Noel Diary, and Bookmarks.Taylor has received recognition for her works in the Karen Allen-starred drama Colewell, for which she won a 2019 Hollywood Music in Media Award. In 2023, she received an SCL Award nomination for Sony Pictures/Screen Gems’ The Invitation. Next up for Taylor is Tyler Perry’s Straw starring Taraji P. Henson.ABOUT BMI:Celebrating over 80 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, BMI® is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in over 22.4 million musical works created and owned by more than 1.4 million songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The Company negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. In 1939, BMI created a groundbreaking open-door policy becoming the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today, the musical compositions in BMI’s repertoire, from chart toppers to perennial favorites, span all genres of music and are consistently among the most-performed hits of the year. For additional information and the latest BMI news, visit bmi.com, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @BMI or stay connected through BMI‘s Facebook page. Sign up for BMI’s The Weekly and receive our e-newsletter every week to stay up to date on all things music.ABOUT WHITE BEAR PR:White Bear Public Relations specializes in PR for composers, music supervisors, and film & music festivals around the world. The company is built on relationships and creativity, thrives on innovation, and gets results. Since its inception, White Bear PR has produced award-winning campaigns, represented clients at all major film festivals, and created popular composer-focused panels at Comic-Con and WonderCon. More at www.whitebearpr.com or follow us on social media @whitebearpr.The post BMI & White Bear PR to Present "The Art of Music in Horror" at WonderCon 2025 first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Early stats point to Mixed 2025 for Live MusicAfter several years of meteoric growth in live music, an analysis by Pollstar of the period of November 14, 2024 to February 12, 2025 point to a mixed 2025 for live music.
The post Early stats point to Mixed 2025 for Live Music appeared first on Hypebot.

Music Tech takes center stage in Miami next weekThe first Miami MusicTech Summit is set for next Tuesday, March 25. The gathering will bring together global music tech leaders while showcasing the city’s exploding music tech and innovation scene.
The post Music Tech takes center stage in Miami next week appeared first on Hypebot.

GUNS N’ ROSES ANNOUNCE DEPARTURE OF DRUMMER FRANK FERRERGuns N’ Roses announce the amicable exit of Frank Ferrer, the longest-serving drummer in their storied run. The band thanks Frank for his friendship, creativity, and sturdy presence over the past 19 years, and they wish him success in the next chapter of his musical journey. Frank first joined GNR during a show in June 2006 helping anchor the rhythm section during subsequent tours, including their recent outings featuring the reunited trio of Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan. His last show with the band took place November 5, 2023 in Mexico. The post GUNS N’ ROSES ANNOUNCE DEPARTURE OF DRUMMER FRANK FERRER first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Miley Cyrus’ motion to dismiss copyright lawsuit over ‘Flowers’ denied by courtIf the court had accepted Cyrus' lawyers' argument, then copyright "could never be enforced" once the original authors sold their rights, the judge said
Source

Bedroom Pop, Music Creation and ‘More Likes, Fewer Gigs’Is the traditional music career model dead? Learn about Bedroom Pop and how a new generation of artists are building fanbases without leaving their bedrooms.
The post Bedroom Pop, Music Creation and ‘More Likes, Fewer Gigs’ appeared first on Hypebot.

New Model For Music Streaming: Play Credits, Curation & More"The long tail is being demonetized," writes Mark Mulligan of MIDiA which will lead to a "groundswell of discontent" among creators. But the analyst finds hope in a new model for music streaming.
The post New Model For Music Streaming: Play Credits, Curation & More appeared first on Hypebot.

Tencent Music has integrated DeepSeek into its streaming service (and 3 other things we learned on the company’s latest earnings call)China's largest operator of music streaming services says live music is becoming increasingly important to listeners
Source

Fender Introduces New Models and Finish Options for the “Brand New Again” American Vintage II SeriesToday, Fender introduces more finish options for existing models and the new 1965 Stratocaster and Limited Edition American Vintage II 1951 Telecaster®.  The Fender® American Vintage II series is built with period-accurate bodies, necks, and hardware, premium finishes, and meticulously voiced, year-specific pickups. Each instrument captures the essence of authentic Fender craftsmanship and tone. American Vintage II 1965 Stratocaster®: In the middle of one of music’s most electrifying decades, the Stratocaster in 1965 was an instrument on its way to becoming rock’s greatest electric guitar. A perfect example of a Strat in a transition year, the 1965 Stratocaster® features a 1965 “C”-shaped maple neck, this time with a round-laminated rosewood fingerboard and larger pearl dot inlays. Other authentic features include an 11-hole three-ply white pickguard, the incredibly cool transition logo with larger lettering, and a set of amazing “gray bottom” Pure Vintage 1965 pickups.

Limited Edition American Vintage II 1951 Telecaster® in Prototype White: Just one year after launching the Broadcaster®, Fender received a cease-and-desist telegram from the Fred Gretsch Mfg. Co. and was faced with renaming its flagship electric guitar. Taking inspiration from the booming growth and expansive reach of television, the first blackguard Telecaster rolled off the line in 1951. The American Vintage II 1951 Telecaster features an ash body. The substantial '51 "U"-shaped hard rock maple neck plays like a dream with a 7.25" radius fingerboard and vintage tall frets. Characteristic of production in 1951, 12th fret face-dot spacing is narrow and the sole Phillips-head fastener on the guitar is at the truss rod nut. The triple brass saddle bridge, single-line "Fender Deluxe" tuners and Pure Vintage '51 Telecaster pickups deliver classic twang and authentic Fender style. Now available in a very limited Prototype White finish!Fender sits down with English singer-songwriter and guitarist James Bay to commemorate today's releases. Get a front-row seat with the acclaimed musician as he plays the new American Vintage II Stratocaster in Candy Apple Red and shares why a Strat has been his go-to from the beginning.The post Fender Introduces New Models and Finish Options for the “Brand New Again” American Vintage II Series first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

A model for a new streaming industryThe music industry is approaching a pivot point. On the one hand, things look positive: we have UMG’s Streaming 2.0, artist centric licensing, the impending launch of supremium and expanded rights revenue hitting $4.0 billion. But on the other we have streaming growth slowing to 6.2% growth in 2024, Artists Direct revenue growing three and half times slower than the number of artists and independent labels beginning to voice concern over the lost royalties that may result from artist centric. The real challenge facing the music industry is that both of these views of the world are true. In short, if you are big, you can see a path to getting bigger and if you are small you can see a path to getting smaller. This is Bifurcation Theory a concept MIDiA introduced a year ago. 2025 is going to be the year that the bifurcation rubber hits the road. And in doing so, it creates a major (pun intended) opportunity for all those that are not majors.

The long tail is being demonetised

Artist Centric might, just might, result in ‘”many” independent artists and labels [seeing] their royalties increase’ but what is inarguable is that many artists and labels will earn less. This is inarguable because the very essence of the model is that songs with less than 1,000 streams in the prior 12 months will not get paid royalties. To be absolutely clear, what this means is that a body of labels and artists will see their music demonetised on streaming. To be clear, demonetising the long tail is not something new, it is widely employed by the big social platforms, who set earning thresholds for their creators (e.g. you need 1,000 subscribers to share ad revenue on YouTube). But it is something new for the music business.

The groundswell of discontent is coming

When you add this to the long term challenges of feeding insatiable appetite of the algorithms with endless releases and social posts, a growing body of artists and labels are going to asking why they should bother. That this has not happened yet is probably because the majority of artists hit by this were smaller, non-label artists who were already used to small royalties and probably do not have the industry awareness to understand what is at play. The same cannot be said of smaller independent labels, who absolutely do understand the dynamics of royalty mechanisms and will already be doing the arithmetic on how the new system will impact their revenues. Distributors will be doing a similar analysis of the labels and artists they distribute. 2025 will be the year in which we see a groundswell of discontent as these industry constituents start to comprehend what is coming.

A solution…

So much for the problems, what about solutions? Now is the time to build a place for the long tail. A place where the smaller players do not have to compete on unequal terms with the bigger ones. Asymmetric models are not designed for the small players to win. That is the entire point. But simply creating an indie Spotify will not be enough. The pro rate royalty pot model was never designed for a massive long tail and porting it over somewhere else will bring the same superstar dynamics, just with smaller superstars. So, here’s a model for an independent alternative to streaming:

Curation: A highly curated place for smaller labels and artists with human curation at the fore

Play credits: A credits based system, whereby people can subscribe for a certain number of credits and top up if they want, with each credit equalling one play (thereby guaranteeing a fixed per stream rate rather than a wish and a prayer that the royalty pot does not get divided too many ways this month

Discretionary pricing: Whereby labels and artists can determine (on a track-by-track basis) how many credits each track requires. Despite us having been educated so by streaming, not all music is worth the same. Labels and artists  might decide they want some of their songs to be zero credits, some to be 1 and others 10. It is a model that works well in other areas such as stock photography libraries

Curated freemium: Instead of simply a free tier, and in addition to zero credit streams, the free, ad and brand supported ‘front door’ would be an Apple Music Radio-like set of live streaming radio stations. All with clickable ‘now playing’ track details and some with, you know, actual human DJs

Not just music, but about the music too: Artist interviews, album reviews etc. Taking the bets of What Bandcamp and Apple Music do

Alternative remuneration: Artist subscriptions, tipping, social commerce, Shopfiy-like artist stores, virtual items. Not each and every one of these will fit every artist and label, so these would be opt-in extras

This might sound like pie in the sky thinking, but the simple fact is much of this is already been done, some of it in the music business (e.g. Apple Music Radio for curation and interviews, Bandcamp for reviews) and some outside it (Audible and Getty Images for credits). And we actually laid out a lot of detail for a similar model in our Bifurcation report last year.

However, there is one really difficult thing needed to make this really work: artists and labels would have to remove some or all of their music from mainstream DSPs, even if this is only done on a windowing basis. But if you are a smaller label or artist facing the prospect of demonetisation then really, how much is there to lose other than the vanity metrics of stream counts? Is this way easier for an analyst to write as a blog than for a label or artist to actually do? Of course. But the alternative for many will be to play the role of the slow boiled frog.

But what is great about this approach is that it benefits both sides. The long tail gets a place where it is both welcome and stands a fair and reasonable chance of monetisation. Meanwhile, the big labels and artists have more space (and therefore monetisation) for themselves on traditional streaming.

This will not be some huge Spotify killer. It will be a Bandcamp move for the 2020s. A place for alternative-minded super fans who do not want to spend their entire time lost in the algorithm’s mainstream maelstrom. Music is not all the same, it has never been. It is time to stop pretending that it is.

Fast Company names 10 Most Innovative Music Companies 2025Fast Company has released its annual list of the 10 most innovative music companies for 2025. Not one of the major streamers or record labels made the list.
The post Fast Company names 10 Most Innovative Music Companies 2025 appeared first on Hypebot.

Groover expands Artist Services and ToolkitMusic promotion platform Groover expands artists services with the goal of empowering musicians and DJs by providing them with the tools they need to gain visibility and meaningful opportunities in the music industry.
The post Groover expands Artist Services and Toolkit appeared first on Hypebot.