Vinyl Sales Have Grown 66.6% In Canada This Year Alone — Among Other Huge Gains

When it comes to the music consumption habits of Canada, some interesting trends have emerged during the first half of 2018. In particular, vinyl records enjoyed a surge of 66.6 percent, according to Nielsen’s mid-year report.  In 2017, there wer…

MIT Develops AI That Can Isolate and Edit the Individual Instruments in a Song

MIT’s latest AI feat has the power to pick apart music in an unprecedented way. When a song is released, it’s in its final form.  It’s a single audio file that is nearly impossible to separate into individual instruments and voices. A…

TV Musicians Demand Better Pay from YouTube, Other Online Platforms

Negotiations are back in full swing as television musicians fight for their right to equal pay for appearances on online platforms. After a more than six-month hiatus, negotiations have begun again between the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and…

Latest Industry: Arista, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jay-Z vs. Spotify, Elvis Costello, iHeartMedia, More…

Sony revives Arista. Sony Music Entertainment has relaunched Arista Records.  Former Island President and CEO David Massey will lead the company.  Based in New York, he’ll report directly to Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer.  Sony Music and Massey have also…

Drake Officially Breaks the One Week Billion-Stream Barrier

Few people are surprised that Scorpion, the fifth album from rapper Drake, has done well.  But how many industry insiders expected Scorpion to break the one-week billion-stream barrier? Looks like Scorpion has the biggest sting of any modern release. T…

Latest Industry: Piracy Drops, TanaCon, Stony Plain, Idris Elba, James Mtume, Netflix, More…

Fewer young people are pirating content. According to a new report from the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), piracy has dropped 7% among 16-to-24-year-olds since 2015.  Over half now subscribe to an online video service, including Netflix and A…

Tencent Music Is About to File for a $30 Billion IPO

Spotify changed Wall Street forever with its $30 billion ‘non-IPO’.  Now, Tencent Music wants to do the same, albeit through more traditional channels. We’ve written about the unbelievable transformations happening in the Chinese musi…

32,000+ Songwriters & Authors Urge European Parliament to Pass Article 13

Earlier, we reported that nearly 150 organizations corralled by Impala urged European Parliamentarians to support Article 13.  Now, songwriters in Europe are doing the same. Actually, songwriters are being joined by a far greater class of authors and c…

Drake Collaborator Smoke Dawg Murdered as Rap’s Body Count Continues

Now, Canadian rapper and Drake collaborator Smoke Dawg has been murdered. The Canadian rapper, whose real name is Jahvante Smart, was shot dead in his hometown of Toronto on Saturday, June 30th.  Toronto Mayor John Tory confirmed that the shooting was …

Latest Industry: YouTube, Sasquatch!, Sony/ATV, Songkick, Instagram, Maynard James Keenan, Triller, More…

Sony/ATV, Stellar Songs, and MER launch Stellar Songs Scandinavia. MER, a Norwegian independent music company, has entered into a worldwide publishing joint venture with Stellar Songs and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Scandinavia.  The agreement – which es…