Vol 2 - NEWS BEHIND NEWS BEHIND NEWS

Tea is boiling, Apple is cooking & Chromakopia is coming.

October 18, 2024

Happy Friday,

Tea is boiling, Apple is cooking & Chromakopia is coming.

Got thoughts? Hit reply.

Mk.gee

New Music Friday

What you need to know about today’s new releases

👀 Feels like one of the bigger release days since spring…

🎶 New albums and EPs from Bon Iver, Yeat, Jean Dawson, Riley Green, LP Giobbi, The Blessed Madonna, Phantogram, ian, Joy Oladokun, Kylie Minogue, Maverick Sabre, Bishop Briggs…

♪ Notable singles from Morgan Wallen, Mk.gee, Gunna, Polo & Pan, Ari Lennox, FKA twigs, Conan Gray, JADE, Bailey Zimmerman, Jeremih, A$AP Ferg…

Click here for releases we found interesting on Spotify’s NMF…

Each week, we go through Spotify’s New Music Friday playlists to highlight releases you should know about…

#1 - ‘APT.’ from ROSÉ and Bruno Mars. Co-written by Amy Allen of ‘Espresso’ and ‘Please Please Please’ writing fame. It’s a 3-peat for members of BLACKPINK taking the #1 spot. Surprisingly, it did not crack top ten on NMF UK.

#3 - Gracie Abrams returns with the deluxe version of The Secret of Us - she is also the only artist who consistently placed top 5 across NMF Global, UK, Japan, Korea, AU/NZ, Sweden.

#5 - Mk.gee does his best The Police impression with ‘ROCKMAN’.

#13 - Myke Towers’ ‘DEGENERE (feat. benny blanco)’ samples Suzanne Vega’s ‘Tom’s Diner'.

#16 - Sofia Valdés gets big support from Spotify with ‘Already Yours’ off her self-titled album that drops today.

#18 - It’s that time of year — Conan Gray captures SEO with track titled ‘Holidays.’

#42 - Bishop Briggs is back with her first album since 2019 with featured track ‘Serotonin.’

#44 - Kelsea Ballerini’s ‘First Rodeo’ is co-written by Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, among others.

#76 - Australia’s Dean Lewis releases new single ‘Empire.’

#79 - Ice Cube returns with his first single in 3 years with ‘It’s My Ego’, kicking off his Man Down album release cycle.

⭐ #99 - Hildegard, Helena Deland & Ouri team up for ‘Pour Your Heart Out’ on new collab album Jour 1596.

❌ - nowhere to be seen on NMF Global is Charli xcx & Kesha’s collab for ‘Spring breakers’ - even Spotify editors are ready for Chromakopia fall.

⭐ = our pick of the week. Usually an under the radar artist to keep an eye on.

Halsey

The Schedule

Notable upcoming releases

Halsey, Amyl and The Sniffers, Soccer Mommy, Kelsea Ballerini, Pixies, Tears For Fears, Cochise, Rejjie Snow all have new projects expected to come out next week.

070 Shake, Ethel Cain, Panda Bear, Qrion announced new albums & Tyler, The Creator teased Chromakopia.

ICYMI

Industry news that mattered this week

UMG fully acquired [PIAS] (they may have a regulatory fight on their hands though). Apple Music partnered with dominant China wireless carrier to bring Apple Music to +1B new users. Concord acquired parts of Daddy Yankee’s catalog for $217M. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Michael Rapino must give a deposition in connection to Astroworld litigation. Ex-Pitchfork writers launch new site, Hearing Things.

Luminate say Vinyl sales dropped by 33% in 2024, Discogs say they’re up 6%. Spotify users can now watch music videos in 97 markets. A ‘Beatles 64’ doc is coming in November from Producer Martin Scorsese. Megan Thee Stallion and Chief Keef docs are also in the works. Weezer are taking over an open world crime simulator in Fortnite. Even more lawsuits were filed against Diddy this week…

More sad news this week: Liam Payne tragically died in Argentina at age 31. Jackmaster died in Ibiza. Twitch Head of Music Cindy Charles passed away.

small print

Updates on companies, acquisitions, takeovers and more

Our friends at jump.global gave us a discount code for their annual summit (Nov. 17-20 in LA). Check out the summit here and use code JGFRIENDS24

Group Chat

The section that’ll probably get us in trouble one of these days

feud drama continues

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Where will Chappell land??

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What did NIF readers think about Dua’s Drink?

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Just add tequila

Breaking Benjamin, Adam Lambert, Deb Never

Fresh Ink

Interesting artist signings

Breaking Benjamin is back with their first new song in 5 years after signing a new record deal with BMG.

Adam Lambert joined the Lateral Management/Three Six Zero management roster.

EDEN moved to Slush Management. Previously managed by SB Projects.

Rapper-producer Jim Legxacy signed with XL Recordings.

Signaled alt-pop artist & BROCKHAMPTON collaborator Deb Never signed with Giant Music with a new album slated for 2025.

GRAMMY winner k.d. lang signed with Reservoir for publishing.

✍️ +130 other artist signings on ROSTR this week

The Live World

Tour, festival and other live news

Morgan Wallen is partnering with Stagecoach producer Stacy Vee & Hangout Music Festival to bring Sand In My Boots Festival to Gulf Shores, Alabama in May 2025.

After being discontinued 6 years ago, Vans Warped Tour is coming back in 2025 with stops in Orlando, Long Beach & D.C.

Sphere Entertainment is opening up a second, um, sphere, this time in Abu Dhabi.

Taylor Swift, newly crowned richest female artist in the world, will release The Eras Tour Book on November 29th for an affordable $40. Oh, and CDs and vinyl are dropping for The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology the same day. That’s 36 versions of the album for anyone who’s counting.

Brit trip-hop band Massive Attack had to cancel their first US shows in 5 years.

🎸 Biggest tours announced this week: RÜFÜS DU SOL, Father John Misty, Bishop Briggs, Dylan Marlowe.

The Aspen Live conference announced their speakers for this year including our very own Mark Williamson ⛷️

Speaker lineup for Aspen Live Conference ‘24
(Dec 5th-8th)

On The Move

New hires, exec moves and other people news

Takeshi Okasa was named president & CEO of Warner Music Japan. Jean Mischler was appointed SVP, Marketing at CD Baby. Mike McCormack steps down from UMPG to establish a consultancy/JV with UMPG. David Gray is set to become managing director, UK and Head of Global A&R. Justin Grant was named SVP/head of Urban Digital at Capitol Records. Dante Smith was promoted to head of Motown Digitial.

Dope Jobs

Interesting jobs in music

We also run Jobs by ROSTR - these are some of the most interesting jobs posted this week:

  • Music Programme Producer at SXSW London

  • Music Attorney, Mergers & Acquisitions at Create Music Group

  • VP, Marketing Operations at BMG

  • VP, Insights & Analysis at BMG

  • Growth, Product and Ad Sales roles at The ROSTR Group

Find these and 125+ open roles at Jobs by ROSTR.

What’s Good?

Recent notable record reviews

“unexpected, unfiltered, uncomfortably messy, and dizzyingly fun” - Pitchfork on Charli xcx’s Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (90 on Metacritic)

“blistering, rage-fuelled energy… with hints of Foo Fighters and Olivia Rodrigo” - The Guardian on The Linda Lindas No Obligation (83 on Metacritic)

“Jelly Roll sings with the conviction of a man who’s seen too much” - The Independent on Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken

Too Long / Did Read

Interesting, often long, stuff to watch, read, or listen to

Your Hot Takes 🫵 

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