Music News
The forthcoming KISS biopic has found an unexpected star, with Nick Jonas reportedly set to portray the band’s frontman, Paul Stanley.
Per a report from Deadline, Jonas is preparing to close a deal which will see him taking on the role of KISS’ vocalist and rhythm guitarist in Shout It Out Loud. The role will also reportedly see Jonas doing his own singing as he takes on cuts from the hard rock outfit’s celebrated back catalog.
The upcoming film will be directed by McG, with a screenplay written by Darren Lemke set to go into production towards the end of the year. Deadline also reports that the highly-anticipated role of bassist Gene Simmons is yet to be cast.
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Though Jonas may seem like an intriguing choice given his role as a member of the decidedly more clean-cut and pop-rock focused Jonas Brothers, he’s been a constant presence in the world of stage and screen for over two decades.
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Alongside stage credits which include productions such as Hairspray, The Sound of Music, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Jonas has also appeared in films such as Goat, Midway, and the recent Jumanji franchise. He is also slated to appear alongside Paul Rudd in the forthcoming musical comedy Power Ballad.
The KISS biopic has been in the works since 2021, with manager Doc McGhee revealing in early 2023 that it would initially arrive the following year, with Shout It Out Loud reportedly set to focus on the group’s early period.
“It’s a biopic about the first four years of KISS,” McGhee explained. “We’re just starting it now. We’ve already sold it, it’s already done, we have a director, McG. That’s moving along and that’ll come in ’24.”
KISS first formed in New York City in 1973, with their self-titled debut arriving the following year. Their hard rock stylings and theatrical stage presence made them one of the most iconic bands of the era, with the group being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
The veteran group would perform their final show in December 2023 following their lengthy End of The Road tour, and are reportedly set to launch a digital avatar show in Las Vegas in 2027
Close to 60 years since they were committed to tape, the earliest known live recordings of Sly & the Family Stone will be released this year.
Dubbed The First Family: Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967, the collection of unearthed live cuts will be issued on July 18 via High Moon.
They’ll be available as digital, vinyl and CD editions, with physical copies being issued with a booklet featuring never-before-seen photos, interviews with Sly Stone and original band members, and liner notes from producer Alex Palao. The CD edition will also feature their cover of Otis Redding‘s “Try A Little Tenderness” as an exclusive bonus track.
Recorded on March 26, 1967, the live set sees the influential group performing as part of their four-month residency at the Winchester Cathedral club in Redwood City, California. Recorded by first manager Rich Romanello, the tapes were soon shelved, but later rediscovered in 2002 by Dutch twins and band archivists Edwin and Arno Konings.
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“The Winchester Cathedral recordings showcase a one-of-kind outfit that was already at the peak of its powers, long before it became internationally famous,” said Palao in a statement. “Sly is fully in command, while the unique arrangements and tighter-than-tight ensemble playing point clearly to the road ahead, and the enduring influence of Sly & the Family Stone’s music.”
Alongside the announcement of the package, a preview of the record has been released by way of final track, “I Gotta Go Now (Up On The Floor)/Funky Broadway.”
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Despite being recorded in March 1967, the live set features no tracks which would appear on their debut album – A Whole New Thing – when it arrived in October of that year. Largely comprising cover songs, only the opening track, “I Ain’t Got Nobody (For Real),” would be issued on one of the band’s albums, appearing on Dance to the Music in 1968.
Sly & the Family Stone would release a total of ten albums across their 19-year career, with the band coming to an end in 1983, and later being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Stone would release a solo album in 1975, with his most recent full-length release being 2011’s I’m Back! Family & Friends.
Earlier this year, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson directed the film Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), which provided a deeper look into the life and legacy of its titular musical mastermind.
“I wanted to investigate and interrogate the idea of Black genius. How is it different from the idea of genius in general? What is the effect of being saddled with that label? How much promise is built into it, how much fear and how much unreasonable expectation?” Questlove said in a statement. “Sly wanted to take you higher — I hope that this film also takes you deeper.”
Listen to “I Gotta Go Now (Up On The Floor)/Funky Broadway” below:
It’s officially Tha Carter VI time. Lil Wayne is back and he unleashed the anticipated sixth installment to his Hall-of-Fame series on Friday (June 6).
Seven years after C5, Weezy returned with the next chapter for Tha Carter. He brought a star-studded cast with him that includes BigXthaPlug, Big Sean, Bono, MGK, Kodak Black, Jelly Roll and 2 Chainz.
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On the production side, the New Orleans rap legend recruited Wheezy and Ye (formerly Kanye West) behind the boards.
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Tha Carter VI is Weezy’s first solo album since he dropped Funeral at the top of the decade, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The last three installments of the Carter series have topped the charts.
Wayne gave fans an early taste of the first possible single with “The Days” featuring Bono, which was used as part of an NBA Finals promo by ESPN ahead of game one of the Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday (June 5).
Weezy also hopped on a FaceTime call with Justin Bieber ahead of the album’s arrival. “Checking in with [Goat],” Bieber captioned the screenshot on his Instagram Story. “It’s a painful walk but we got each other.”
Friday will be a celebratory night for Wayne, who will be headlining Madison Square Garden in NYC for the first time as a solo artist, while delivering the live debut of Tha Carter VI for the lucky Big Apple fans in attendance.
The performance will kick off Tha Carter VI Tour before going on a hiatus for a few weeks and picking up again later this month for a loaded 34-date trek across North America, which includes stops in Atlantic City, N.J.; Toronto; Cincinnati; Minneapolis; Milwaukee; Detroit; Phoenix, Seattle; Los Angeles; Austin; Dallas; Atlanta and more before finishing in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Oct. 2.
Avid Wayne fans can shop a plethora of C6 merch bundles on his website featuring collaborations with Barriers and BAPE.
Stream Tha Carter VI below.
KATSEYE says it’s going to be a “Gnarly” Summer, especially with Ice Spice on the new remix that dropped Friday (June 6). “Oh my god, this song’s so lit,” KATSEYE quoted the song’s lyrics on Instagram underneath the remix’s gnarly cover art featuring an anonymous hand ready to cut into a double decker sandwich. The […]
Mariah Carey isn’t playing it safe on new single “Type Dangerous,” which ushered in a new musical era for the vocalist Thursday (June 5). Featuring the superstar singing over a swaggering, percussion-heavy beat, the track showcases Mimi channeling her sultriest, most confident self. “Looking for the dangerous type,” she croons. “I like them dangerous/ That’s […]
Addison Rae’s rise to main pop girl is equal parts master class and modern spectacle. Having started on TikTok, becoming one of the platform’s top users known for choreographing brief dances to catchy hits, Rae always had her sights set on a bigger stage — literally. In the past year, she’s performed onstage with Charli […]
50 years to the day since their first live show, Talking Heads have unveiled the official video for their first charting single, ‘Psycho Killer.”
Released on Thursday (June 5), the clip marks the gold anniversary of the band’s debut performance at iconic New York City club CBGB. Opening for fellow New Yorkers the Ramones, the performance comprised just nine songs, including “Psycho Killer,” which would be released as their third single in December 1977.
Issued on debut album Talking Heads: 77, the single would become the group’s first to impact the Hot 100, reaching No. 92 in early 1978. However, it lacked any official visual accompaniment until now, with the Mike Mills-directed clip featuring Academy Award-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan navigating the mundanity of modern life as she slowly destabilizes.
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“This video makes the song better,” the band wrote in a statement. “We LOVE what this video is NOT – it’s not literal, creepy, bloody, physically violent or obvious.”
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Alongside the release of the video, Talking Heads have also announced the super deluxe edition of their second album, 1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food, with the limited box set due for release on July 25.
Talking Heads lasted from 1975 until 1991, with their 16-year career resulting in eight studio albums. 1983’s Speaking in Tongues was their most successful, peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, with lead single “Burning Down the House” giving them their highest-charting single when it reached No. 9 on the Hot 100.
Though the group would split in 1991, their final live performances would take place seven years earlier as part of the Speaking in Tongues tour in 1984. They would later reunite for one solitary performance for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Reports of “bad blood” between the group has been the stated cause behind no further reunions, though David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison did appear together for the first time since 2002 as part of the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 to celebrate the re-release of their Stop Making Sense concert film.
However, while this in-person reunion has left fans eager for a return to the live stage, the band seem less than eager to do so, with members even going so far as to turn down a reported $80 million offer for a series of shows in late 2023.
Watch Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” below.
Round Hill Music acquired the publishing catalogs of songwriters Terry Shaddick (Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical”), Linus Eklöw (Icona Pop’s “I Love It”) and Carmine Appice (Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”) along with publishing assets of the band Dirty Heads (“Vacation”) and a portion of the master rights for Al Stewart (“Year of the Cat”). According to a press release, the acquisitions bring Round Hill’s catalog value under management back to more than $1 billion following the sales of its London Stock Exchange-listed fund to Concord in 2023. The company continues managing five private funds.
Rezonate Music Rights, a new investment platform that’s looking to acquire the royalty rights of music producers backed by a $150 million partnership with Bridgepoint Credit, announced its launch. According to a press release, the investment will allow Rezonate to make “high-profile” producer catalog acquisitions; Bridgepoint is also acquiring a minority stake in Rezonate’s management company. Co-founded by music producer Cam Blackwood, Rezonate has already acquired rights from producers including Loma Blackwood, Mark Crew, James Earp and Jussi Karvinen.
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Live Nation acquired Dominican Republic-based live entertainment company SD Concerts, which promotes Latin and international talent in the Dominican Republic, along with Aruba, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Puerto Rico. The company also operates a ticketing platform that services all SD events; it will become part of the Ticketmaster ecosystem under the deal. According to Live Nation, fan attendance in the Latin American region was up more than 25% in the first quarter of this year.
Global streaming service Audiomack signed a deal with music fraud detection company Beatdapp to help eliminate streaming fraud on its platform. Through the deal, Beatdapp will remove fraudulent streams from sales reports, detect bots and more by analyzing streaming activity on Audiomack. “By partnering with Beatdapp, we have adopted the best-in-class technology from an impartial third party to demonstrate our commitment to both our creator and rights holder partners, and to uphold the integrity of our editorial recommendations and chart activity,” said Audiomack CEO Dave Macli in a statement.
Spotify struck a deal with United Airlines to bring more than 450 hours of free Spotify-curated playlists, podcasts and audiobooks to more than 130,000 United seatback screens. In a blog post, the streaming giant said it’s the first time it has offered audiobooks and video podcasts on an airline. Next year, United passengers will be able to use their personal devices to log in to the Spotify app on the airline’s in-flight screens, allowing them to pick up where they left off on their personal Spotify accounts.
Music synch platform SourceAudio launched the first comprehensive AI dataset licensing marketplace through which it will offer 14 million fully cleared tracks to AI companies via an opt-in model. The tracks come from major publishers, indie artists and production music libraries, providing AI companies with training datasets while offering compensation to writers and publishers. So far, the company has partnered with several AI companies, including Wondera.ai, generating more than $1.35 million in new annual recurring revenue for artists and publishers who opted in, according to a press release. Revenue from dataset licensing is paid out to rights holders up front or throughout the term of each license agreement. Rightsholders already on SourceAudio can contact their rep at the company to explore dataset licensing for themselves. Those not on SourceAudio can opt in by contacting the company here.
Karaoke technology company Singa signed a deal with Warner Music Group to bring original master recordings from the label’s artists to the Singa platform (the agreement includes both Warner Chappell Music and Warner Recorded Music). “This game-changing deal allows karaoke singers at home and Singa-powered venues worldwide to perform songs by iconic Warner Music Group artists, all using the original backing tracks,” said Singa co-founder/CEO Atte Hujanen in a statement. This is Singa’s first deal with a major label, though it has previously secured deals with publishers and indie labels.
Sony Music India signed a joint venture with The Hello Group (THG) to form THG India. Through the deal, Sony Music India’s local reach will be paired with THG’s international touring and artist development network to help Indian artists thrive in the country’s growing live music ecosystem and beyond. THG India will offer comprehensive support for talent, including management, global concert booking and publishing, while Sony Music India will provide strategic investment and access to its creative and commercial platforms.
AEG Presents acquired Nashville-based special events production company Gary Musick Productions and the affiliated entity Destination Musick City. Gary Musick Productions will keep its name and continue providing corporate and social event services, including audio-visual production, scenic fabrication, custom set design, live streaming and branding integration. Destination Musick City will remain a destination management company offering immersive experiences and full meeting execution services for groups visiting Nashville. With the deal, Gary Musick Productions will expand its design and fabrication services to music festivals and concerts while giving its clients access to AEG’s network of venues.
Symphonic Distribution partnered with Hitmakers Entertainment, which boasts Australian pop and R&B artist Tash on its roster. Going forward, the two companies will support emerging and established artists from Australia and Southeast Asia. “This collaboration allows us to further expand Tash’s career as well as our continually growing roster with the help of Symphonic’s creative and strategic vision,” said Hitmakers boss Mark Feist in a statement.
New Sweden-based generative AI startup Songfox struck a deal with Musical AI, through which it will use Musical AI’s platform, containing fully cleared music catalogs, to train its models. Musical AI will provide full reports of what data contributed to each generated song, allowing Songfox to pay rightsholders. According to a press release, Songfox allows users to generate and “tweak” full songs, including AI-assisted lyrics and a library of licensed voices.
Billboard’s The Stage hit SXSW London on Thursday night (June 5), marking the first time the event took place in the U.K. The show at the capital’s Troxy was headlined by Lagos-born, London-based superstar Tems, a day after she collected the Diamond Award at the Global Power Players Event alongside Sir Elton John and EMPIRE […]
Sabrina Carpenter‘s new song “Manchild” is here, kicking off what could very well be another summer of dominance for the pop star. Following the success of hits such as “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and “Taste” on the charts last year, the pop star returned Thursday night (June 5) with a track that pokes fun at […]