Music News and New Releases

“This album is an open diary of someone in their early twenties,” Nina Nesbitt tells Apple Music. It’s been five years since her folk-pop debut Peroxide (inspired by her on-off relationship with a certain Ed Sheeran), leaving the Edinburgh singer-songwriter a lot of time to reflect. “I wrote a lot of the first album when I was 17, 18 and I didn’t really know who I was or what my sound was or what I wanted,” she says. “I think you can hear that in that album—not in a bad way—but it just represented where I was. I really wanted to make an album with a cohesive sound to it.” This is a follow-up dripping with lush vocals and synth textures across songs on self-discovery (“The Moments I’m Missing”) to sassy odes to singledom (“Somebody Special”). “In a lot of the songs on the first album, I’m a victim,” she says. “Whereas in this album I wanted to take control and give my music an empowering feel to it.” Part of that empowerment was taking a step back from writing about love. “I often hear songs just about relationships, and that’s cool, but I want to cover a lot of […]

It’s no longer possible to call Bring Me the Horizon a rock band. On their sixth album, the Sheffield four-piece draw on so many genres and ideas, they evade any attempt at categorisation. “I’ve always thought there’s too many borders, too many bridges, that people don’t cross in music,” frontman Oli Sykes tells Apple Music. “The real world has too much of that as it is. I guess that’s our crusade.” amo—Portuguese for “love”—stretches from bittersweet pop to electronic experimentalism, calling on an art-pop visionary, a legendary beatboxer and an extreme-metal icon along the way. Here, Sykes breaks down their crusade, track by track. i apologise if you feel something “We knew it was almost impossible to give anyone a heads-up of what this album was going to sound like. It was important for that first track just to be like, ‘Forget whatever you think it’s going to sound like, because you’re not going to be able to guess from anything we’ve shown you before.’” MANTRA “At the end of the writing process, I had a bit of a meltdown. Even though we did have a lot of stuff, we didn’t have that song where we were like, ‘This is […]

“Most of my mixtapes all had songs I’d written while I was in jail,” Fredo tells Apple Music. “This is all different. I was free the whole time and put a lot of time and thought into it. This is my first album, and my first piece of work I’ve been out here to do.” Third Avenue is a debut that marks a period of relative serenity for a London MC who’s overcome two prison spells and celebrated a UK No. 1 (2018’s “Funky Friday” with Dave). It’s a debut that also, crucially, pays tribute to his roots. “I’m from a place called Mozart Estate,” he says. “West Kilburn on the map. There are six avenues leading into the estate, and I grew up on the third one. I’m here today because of that place. If I had left, ain’t no telling what I’d be doing.” Take a guided tour of Third Avenue with Fredo. “Survival of the Fittest” “I had that song for, like, a year. We didn’t want to start with nothing too jumpy, or nothing too vibesy. We just wanted to start it with something more ‘core.” “Morning” “When it comes to individual songs, I never sit […]

A group of major music labels is seeking court orders that will force major telcos to block online services that they say represent an illicit challenge to streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify. The application to block the four services is being coordinated by Music Rights Australia. The action has been brought in the Federal Court by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), Sony Music Entertainment Australia, Universal Music Australia and Warner Music. If the application is granted — and the Federal Court is yet to knock back a site-blocking injunction brought under Section 115a of the Copyright Act — then customers of Foxtel, Optus, TPG and Vodafone, as well as customers of the telcos’ subsidiaries, will be affected by the site blocks. The current legal action is the first time so-called ‘stream ripping’ sites, which allow audio from streaming services such as Spotify to be downloaded, have been targeted by a Section 115a action. Barrister Rob Clark appearing for the applicants this morning at a case management hearing acknowledged the action is “somewhat different” to past site-blocking cases “in so far as the online locations don’t themselves provide content or the means to get content [such as] […]

This year, the number of people paying for music over a streaming service will overtake people listening for free. That’s good news for the likes of Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music which have upset the traditional music model. Experts believe that streaming has made it fashionable to pay for music again, with the latest numbers from November 2018 showing 20.6% opting to pay, up from 18.3% the year before. At the same time, free streaming – either through services that use adverts, as part of a free trial or with a family license paid for by someone else – is gradually decreasing, currently standing at 21.5%, down from 21.7% previously. Apple Music is Apple’s answer to Spotify (Apple) The figures, based on a panel of 1,500 people quizzed by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), show a narrow 0.9% gap between paid and free, indicating a possible victory for paid-for services by the end of 2019. ‘Ten or 15 years ago popular opinion had it that it was all over for the music business and people would no longer pay for music,’ ERA chief executive Kim Bayley said. These figures are a striking vindication of the innovation and investment of digital […]

Spotify is about to try to become a podcasting giant with two new acquisitions — and we have some suggestions for that — but first, it’s crossing an important milestone with its music streaming business. Today, for the very first time, the company is reporting that it’s turned a profit. That’s right: some 13 years and 96 million paid subscribers later, Spotify is finally making money. Unless you count that one time a complicated tax situation technically threw it into the black. “[F]or the first time in company history, Operating Income, Net Income, and Free Cash Flow were all positive,” reads a portion of Spotify’s financial announcement this morning. Specifically, the company made an operating profit of €94 million, or about $107 million. It’s possibly a good sign for the entire industry, not just Spotify, because Spotify is arguably leading that industry today. Those 96 million paid subscribers add up to nearly double Apple Music’s 50 million subscribers, and Spotify announced it had 207 million monthly active users in total this past quarter. All that said, the profit may not last. The company is forecasting a loss of €50 to €100 million (about $57 to $113 million) next quarter and […]

“I’m making pop records,” The 1975 frontman Matty Healy told Beats 1 host Matt Wilkinson. “When I say we’re a pop band, what I’m really saying is we’re not a rock band. Please stop calling us a rock band—’cause I think that’s the only music we don’t make.” It’s a fair comment: Thanks to their eclecticism and adventure, attempting to label The 1975 has been as easy as serving tea in a sieve. On their third album, the Cheshire four-piece are, once again, many things, including jazz crooners, 2-step experimentalists and yearning balladeers. What’s most impressive is their ability to wrangle all these ideas into coherent music—their outsize ambition never makes the songs feel cluttered. “I hate prog, I hate double albums, I hate indulgence,” said Healy. “I hate it when the world goes, ‘Hey, you’ve got our attention!’ and someone goes, ‘Right, well, if I’ve got your attention, how many guitar solos…’” Crucially, Healy’s lyrics add extra substance to—and bind together—the kaleidoscope of styles. On the neo-jazz of “Sincerity Is Scary”, he rails against a modern aversion to emotional expression. Broadly an album about love in the digital age, A Brief Inquiry… offers compelling insights into Healy’s own life. […]

Meek Mill knows how to make an entrance. “Dreams and Nightmares”, the opening track from his 2012 debut, became one of the most chantable rap songs of the era. “Intro”, the opener from the rapper’s fourth studio album, Championships, revisits the same energy, this time with the dramatic flair provided by a sample of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”. Championships serves as a reintroduction, of sorts, for the rapper. Its title refers to a feeling of accomplishment that Meek is finally comfortable embracing after a tumultuous few years in the limelight, including a bitter rap feud with onetime friend Drake (who officially closes out the beef with an appearance on Championships’ “Going Bad”), a high-profile breakup and a stint in jail stemming from a probation violation related to a charge he caught roughly 10 years prior. “I feel like I’m at a championship stage in my life,” Meek told Beats 1’s Ebro Darden. “I call it beating poverty, beating racism, beating the system, beating gun violence, beating the streets. Once I made it through all that, I got to a point in my life where I’ve been living good and balling, doing what I do.” The album is plenty […]

Ahead of Dying to Live’s release, Kodak Black shared a behind-the-scenes clip from the “Calling My Spirit” video shoot. In it the Pompano Beach, Florida MC talks about his decision to avoid being photographed in the set’s jail cell for fear of glorifying incarceration. This plays out as something of a milestone for Kodak, someone whose career to date has been marked by increasingly promising albums and mixtapes—all dropped amid stints in prison. The rapper’s tone on Dying to Live, the first project since his release this past August, is one of a man weary of his future—Kodak awaits trial for sexual assault charges stemming from an incident in 2016—and concerned with his influence. The album opens with “Testimony”, a song reaffirming Kodak’s faith. “I’m God-sent, like He sent me up/So I can relay these messages/Like He used me as His vessel/Like He used me as an instrument,” he raps. Songs like “Gospel”, from 2015’s Institution, have approached the rapper’s faith in a similar manner, but Dying to Live’s “Close to the Grave” and “Needed Something” stay true to a theme of repentance. The album is hardly all street gospel though. “Malcolm X.X.X.”, which features sound bites from Malcolm X’s […]

Music streaming service Saavn has been rebranded to JioSaavn. The app is available both on Android and iOS-powered devices. Customers can now expect a rebranded icon, while the app features remain unchanged, ExpressTech reports. Announced in March, the merger between Saavn and Reliance Jio is scheduled for completion by year-end. The JioSaavn app on App Store will remain free for Reliance Jio subscribers, while others would have to pay to install the service. Jio customers will also receive free access to Saavn Pro for 90 days.

MTN has launched time-based music streaming service MusicTime. MTN has announced the launch of music streaming service MusicTime, which it calls “a world first offering” from the team at Simfy Africa. MusicTime is a time-based music streaming service, offering users premium trending and locally relevant music through partnerships with key music labels and providers, according to an MTN statement. Last month MTN group CEO and president Rob Shuter announced that the telco had bought music-streaming business Simfy Africa. “The MusicTime offering is set to revolutionise Africa’s music industry with a fully inclusive music streaming offering that includes a countdown timer, top trending music and data included in the price,” MTN said in a statement today. The telco explained that the timer clocks down as users listen to music. “We have worked hard in getting this breakthrough model to our customers. Data costs and the high costs of the top end music streaming products mean that the majority of our customers don’t have an affordable option for digital music and Simfy Africa came with the solution we were looking for,” said Jacqui O’Sullivan, executive for corporate affairs at MTN SA. MusicTime is available as either a 120 minutes offering for R5 […]

MTN South Africa has announced the launch of MusicTime!, which it says is a world-first offering from Simfy Africa. MusicTime is a time-based music streaming service, offering users premium trending and locally relevant music through partnerships with key music labels and providers. The offering includes a countdown timer, top trending music and data. The timer clocks down as users listen to music. MusicTime! is available for 120 minutes for ZAR 5 or 300 minutes for ZAR 10, both valid for seven days from purchase. There are no subscriptions, no hidden data costs and no advertisments.

MTN South Africa has announced the launch of MusicTime!, which it says is a world-first offering from Simfy Africa. MusicTime is a time-based music streaming service, offering users premium trending and locally relevant music through partnerships with key music labels and providers. The offering includes a countdown timer, top trending music and data. The timer clocks down as users listen to music. MusicTime! is available for 120 minutes for ZAR 5 or 300 minutes for ZAR 10, both valid for seven days from purchase. There are no subscriptions, no hidden data costs and no advertisments. https://music.einnews.com/article/470430133/jPLJ5m-JxGbc0Jml?ref=rss&ecode=F71-eCp0PRGspQOT

NEW YORK, U.S. – Chinas largest music-streaming service, Tencent Music Entertainment Group has raised nearly $1.1 billion in its U.S. initial public offering (IPO). The music arm of the Chinese social network and gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange that the music streaming company raised close to $1.1 billion after pricing its shares at the bottom of a marketed range. The company said that in its filing that it had priced its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) at $13 per share, which was at the low end of its indicated $13 to $15 per share range. According to the company’s statement, Tencent Music sold 41 million ADRs, and its existing shareholders sold a further 40.9 million, with a total of 82 million ADRs sold. So far this year, Tencent Musics U.S. IPO is the fourth largest among Chinese firms by deal value. For January-September, Tencent Music reported a 244 percent profit jump to $394 million. On Wednesday, Tencent Music will officially begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘TME.’ Tencent Music added in the filing that its IPO will debut the company at a valuation of about $21.3 […]

2018 will go down as a big year for music streaming services. Millions of people around the globe are transitioning to digital music as a subscription service, ditching CDs and even the pay-per-download model. Several of the biggest music streaming companies had initial public offerings this year, including Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) and Tencent Holdings‘ (NASDAQOTH:TCEHY) recent partial spinoff of Tencent Music Entertainment (NYSE:TME). Here in the U.S., though, an old name reclaimed the top spot this year in the music streaming business. The biggest at home For the past couple of years, Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) growth strategy has been focused on its subscription services, and Apple Music is a tentpole in that segment. After surpassing 50 million users globally back in the spring, Apple Music just stole the top spot in America from Spotify. Both services have over 20 million paying subscribers in the U.S., according to a report from Digital Music News. It’s a tight race between the two companies, one that will probably continue to unfold over the coming years. At this point, Apple has more momentum in the States, though, getting a boost from cross-selling services alongside devices ranging from the iPhone to Beats headphones to the new HomePod smart speaker. […]

New York, NY (Top40 Charts) NPR First Listen is streaming Low Country Sound songwriter Adam Hood’s ‘Somewhere In Between’ (10.12) in full, here: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/653324422/first-listen-adam-hood-somewhere-in-between?t=1538746214643 “Over the course of 11 songs, he also teases out the tension that, for him, lies at the core of what it means to be a small-town, southern singer-songwriter: describing small displays of deliberateness in a thoroughly easygoing fashion,” says NPR Music’s Jewly Hight. The Alabama native’s first album in nine years is a pure reflection of Hood’s live show. It was produced by Oran Thornton (Miranda Lambert ‘Revolution,’ Eric Church ‘Caught In The Act: Live,’ Angaleena Presley ‘Wrangled’) and recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios. Known as the “go-to country songwriter” (Billboard) for songs like Brent Cobb’s “King of Alabama,” Anderson East”s “”Surrender“” and album cuts recorded by Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town and Lee Ann Womack, Hood is ready to be back on the road touring under his own name and with his music. Fri., Oct. 5 will kick off a run of headline dates through the Fall that will travel through New York, Chicago, Boston, Nashville and more. For more information and tickets, please visit adamhood.com. ‘Somewhere In Between’ tracklist:1. Heart of a […]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The owner of China’s largest music streaming services is looking to strike it rich in the U.S. stock market. Tencent Music Entertainment plans to sell its stock in the U.S. as part of an initial public offering. The IPO documents filed Tuesday propose raising $1 billion, but that preliminary figure often ends up being substantially higher. Investor demand is likely to be high, given the rising popularity of music streaming and Tencent’s success so far. Tencent says its services have more than 800 million users, including 23.3 million subscribers who pay to listen to its music library. Most Read Business Stories Unlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks. It’s also profitable, having earned $199 million on revenue of $1.66 billion last year. Tencent’s major shareholders include the leading music streaming service Spotify, which went public earlier this year.

You probably already know that listening to music no longer requires trips to a music store, or purchasing individual songs or albums from iTunes to download to your computer. Today’s best music streaming services have millions of songs in their catalogs, offer personalized playlists, and feature exclusive internet radio shows and podcasts. But which should you pick and pay a subscription fee for? A good streaming music service has a straightforward user interface that makes it easy to organize a library of thousands of songs or playlists across the web, Android, and iOS apps, and in some cases, a desktop Mac or Windows app. However, while most music streaming services have these features, most of them aren’t free, and nearly all services require paid plans that grant you access to a full on-demand library of music and other features. While testing these music streaming services, I considered factors like audio quality options, social integration, and built-in lyrics. It’s also absolutely necessary that your streaming app plays nice with more than one personal device. These are all important points when considering which music service to pick and ultimately, make for a better listening experience. Spotify is the best streaming music service […]

New York, NY (Top40 Charts / NetEase Cloud Music) NetEase Cloud Music, the popular Chinese music streaming platform owned by leading Chinese internet company NetEase, Inc., announced the signing of a copyright licensing partnership with Loen Entertainment, one of the largest entertainment firms in South Korea. With the signing, NetEase Cloud Music has been granted the license to the copyright of the firm’s music catalog, including a large collection of music as well as sought-after albums and tracks from popular performers, including IU, Apink, CNBLUE, GFriend, AOA and THE BOYZ. Loen Entertainment boasts a variety of music genres, covering the gamut from dance music, hip hop and R&B to folk, ballads, TV theme songs and electronic music. The collection will now become available on NetEase Cloud Music, including Palette and CHAT-SHIRE by IU, Miracle and ONE & SIX by Apink, 7°CN and BLUEMING by CNBLUE, Sunny Summer and Time For The Moon Night by GFriend, BINGLE BANGLE and ANGEL’S KNOCK by AOA, as well as THE START and THE SPHERE by THE BOYZ. In addition, NetEase Cloud Music has been granted the license to the copyright of popular albums including Post It by Loco, Gashina by Sun Mi, WHAT IF […]

EDITORS’ NOTES There’s a wistfulness to this album that emerges from its faded colours and the vintage feel of the muffled piano on many of its tracks. French-Canadian pianist/composer Alexandra Stréliski’s music is fragile and vulnerable, its surface optimism a mask for her deep introspection. But it’s also calming: The opening “Plus tôt” is a reassuring waltz, “The Quiet Voice” a lilting, innocent miniature. Stréliski returns to the full-throated sound of a grand piano for the beautiful “Burnout Fugue”, a mesmerising toccata, before delivering a gentle, rippling ballad, “Revient le jour”.

British rock band You Me at Six made their album debut in 2007 and rose to Top Five success in 2010 with their second effort. Founded in 2004 in Weybridge, Surrey, the band comprises Josh Franceschi (vocals), Max Helyer (guitar), Chris Miller (guitar), Matt Barnes (bass), and Dan Flint (drums). They made their recording debut in 2006 with We Know What It Means to Be Alone, a four-track EP that was followed by another, Untitled 4 Track EP. You Me at Six made their full-length debut one year later with Take Off Your Colours on Slam Dunk Records in the United Kingdom and Epitaph Records in the United States. Produced by Matty O’Grady and John Mitchell, Take Off Your Colours reached number 25 on the U.K. albums chart and spawned the hit singles “Save It for the Bedroom,” “Finders Keepers,” and “Kiss and Tell.” Thanks in part to heavy touring, including a performance at the 2007 Slam Dunk Festival, the band’s popularity grew steadily and earned them a nomination for Best British Band at the 2008 and 2009 Kerrang! Awards. Working once again with producers O’Grady and Mitchell, You Me at Six released their second album, Hold Me Down, in […]

twenty one pilots’ cathartic, kitchen-sink style—which folds in alt-rock, reggae, electronic music, and rap—is one of the most unique, unclassifiable commercial sounds of the 2010s. Formed by friends Tyler Joseph, Nick Thomas, and Chris Salih in Columbus, Ohio, the band took its name from Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons, in which a contractor knowingly sends off faulty airplane parts to Europe during World War II, resulting in the death of 21 pilots. The band self-released two albums before making the leap to a subsidiary of Warner Music Group in 2012, shuffling ranks along the way before settling on singer-songwriter Joseph and drummer Josh Dun as its core members. As a duo, they delved further into the idiosyncrasies of their sound—characterized by a minimal blend of keyboards, driving drums, and playful, self-probing lyrics—winning a Grammy in 2017 for their single “Stressed Out.” In 2018, they released the heavily anticipated Trench. A practicing Christian, Joseph credits his faith—and the sustained internal dialogue that comes with it—as a source of inspiration, using his art as a platform to wrestle directly with his demons. Touring behind 2015’s Blurryface, for example, he covered his neck and arms with black greasepaint on stage—a visualization of […]

Rapper Lil Baby grew up in Atlanta hanging with friends like Young Thug, Coach K, and Pee, leaning more toward a life of petty crime and street hustling while his friends went on to thrive in the music industry. In 2015, at age 19, Lil Baby went to prison for two years for a probation violation. Upon his release in 2017, he jump-started his rap career with a mixtape called Perfect Timing, released in April of that year. The mixtape featured cameos from friends like Lil Yachty, Young Thug, and Gunna, and strong production from 808 Mafia, Brickz, and many others, highlighted by Lil Baby’s woozy flows. The mixtape immediately brought the young rapper fame, in part due to his affiliations with friends in the Quality Control family of artists as well as the 4 Pockets Full clique. As his mixtape attracted more listeners, Lil Baby worked constantly on new music, releasing singles like “My Dawg” and the Young Thug collaboration “Pink Slip” in the summer of 2017. Other 2017 releases included Harder Than Hard, 2 the Hard Way (with Marlo), and Too Hard. Lil Baby’s debut studio album, Harder Than Ever, appeared in May of 2018. Featuring guest appearances […]

Glamorously gaudy, a self-made postmodern diva stitched together from elements of Madonna, David Bowie, and Freddie Mercury, Lady Gaga was the first true millennial superstar. Mastering the constant connection of the Internet era, Gaga generated countless mini-sensations through her style, her videos, and her music, cultivating a devoted audience she dubbed “Little Monsters.” But it wasn’t just a cult that turned her 2008 manifesto The Fame into a self-fulfilling prophecy: Gaga crossed over into the mainstream, ushering out one pop epoch and kick-starting a new one, quickly making such turn-of-the-century stars as Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears seem old-fashioned, quite a trick for any artist to pull off, but especially impressive for an artist who specialized in repurposing the past — particularly the ’80s — for present use, creating sustainable pop for a digital world. Perhaps unsurprisingly given her flair for grand gestures, Lady Gaga has deep roots in drama. Born Stefani Germanotta on March 28, 1986, the future Gaga played piano as a child and pursued musical theater in high school, regularly auditioning for New York-based television shows, notably landing a background role for a 2001 episode of The Sopranos. At the age of 17 she enrolled at New […]