News

21 Oct 2022

Executive Turntable: UMG Launches New Soundtrack & Score Label; Republic Names Digital Strategy SVP

Universal Music Group divisions Decca Records, Verve Label Group and Globe Soundtrack & Score joined forces to launch Mercury Classics Soundtrack & Score, a new boutique record label “dedicated to the art of soundtrack & score” and designed to “support today’s leading score composers and artists as they undertake major audio-visual projects globally,” according to a press release. Lana Thompson has been appointed as label manager. The label’s first major releases, slated for this year, include scores for Orion Pictures films Till, composed by Abel Korzeniowski, and Women Talking, composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir. Releases set for 2023 include the soundtrack to MGM’s A Good Person.

Republic Records promoted Tim Hrycyshyn to senior vp of digital strategy; he was previously vp of digital marketing. He is based in New York.

Epidemic Sound named Rikard Herlitz chief technology officer and Julian Persaud chief commercial officer. Both will start in January. Herlitz, who joins from Google, where he served as engineering director for Google Meet, will provide tech leadership and strategic direction across all Epidemic Sound markets. Persaud, who joins from European travel platform Omio, where he was chief commercial officer, will lead the company’s commercial strategy.

°1824, Universal Music Group’s youth-driven creative solutions division, named Possum Hill vp of content. Hill will oversee °1824’s content creation efforts while also working to scale UMG’s livestreaming capabilities. Hill, who joins °1824 from Capitol Music Group, where she was senior director of video production, will be based in Santa Monica and report to °1824 senior vp and head Todd Goodwin.

The College of Music and Media at Loyola University New Orleans — recently named a top music business school by Billboard — appointed music supervisor, music executive and independent film and TV producer and director Jonathan McHugh as its new Hilton-Baldridge eminent scholar and chair. McHugh will enjoy an endowed professorship, steering the university’s music industry studies program. His first initiative at Loyola is the launch of a “Composing for Video Games and Visual Media” major. “Since our student population is 55% diverse and the studios are having trouble filling the diverse hiring quotas and we have so much amazing talent, it makes perfect sense to do it next year,” says McHugh. “I am excited about helping to build next generation of entertainment and music stars at Loyola College of Music and get connected into internships and jobs in the entertainment business.” McHugh will continue in his various other roles outside the school. He recently directed two documentary films — Long Live Rock…Celebrate the Chaos and Cosplay Universe — and is music supervising season two of the animated series Freak Brothers (Lionsgate/Fox/Tubi). He is a member of the Television Academy and the Producers Guild documentary jury.

A2IM announced its 2022-23 executive committee, including Victor Zaraya (Concord Records) as chair, Louis Posen (Hopeless Records) as vice chair, Mariah Czap (Yep Roc Music Group) as treasurer and Heather Johnson (Ninety9Lives/Fixt) as secretary. The organization additionally announced four new board members including Mary Jurey (chief business officer at Blue Elan), Tony Kiewel (president at Sub Pop), Wilson Fuller (head of digital at Merge Records) and Dee Diaz (vp of digital strategy at Reach Records), who will join returning board members Marie Clausen (head of North America & global streaming at Ninja Tune), Steven Hill (director of North America & global projects at Warp Records) and Tony Alexander (president & managing director at Made In Memphis Entertainment). The new advisory board, meanwhile, consists of Talya Elitzer (co-founder of GodMode), Gina Miller (senior vp & general manager at MNRK), Jason Peterson (chairman & CEO at GoDigital Media Group) and Glen Barros (CEO at Exceleration Music).

Create Music Group named Brian Glover to the newly-created role of senior director of streaming. He will oversee streaming strategy for the hip-hop, R&B and pop artists that Create distributes. Based in Los Angeles, Glover arrives at the company from indie label Cinematic Music Group, where he served as director of commerce and artist marketing.

Sophia Sansone and Jarrod Holley were promoted to managing partners at Chris Kappy‘s Make Wake Artists. Sansone manages Luke Combs and his wife, Nicole Combs. Holley leads all A&R responsibilities for the company and manages Drew Parker, Jackie Lee, Cooper Alan and Colby Acuff.

Hazel Savage, music intelligence vp at SoundCloud, joined B2B streaming technology solutions company Tuned Global as a non-executive board member.

Music licensing technology company Audoo hired Matthew Fackrell as senior vp and general manager, Asia Pacific and Eric Nguyen as senior vp and general manager, North America. Based in Sydney and Toronto, respectively, and reporting to Audoo founder and CEO Ryan Edwards, the two will provide industry expertise in their respective territories to execute the adoption and rollout of Audoo’s technology. Fackrell comes from APRA AMCOS and Nguyen joins from Richter Consulting. They can be reached at matthew@audoo.com and eric@audoo.com.

A16z crypto, a venture capital fund managed by Andreessen Horowitz that invests in crypto and Web3 startups, hired Richard Rosenblatt as a senior advisor. Rosenblatt serves as the chairman of ADIM and Autograph, two a16z crypto portfolio companies.

21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift Challenges Fans to Expose Their Insecurities For YouTube Shorts #TSAntiHeroChallenge

Taylor Swift gets vulnerable about some of her insecurities in the video for “Anti-Hero” from her new Midnights album. But now she wants Swifties to do the same. In conjunction with the album’s release, Swift joined YouTube Shorts to launch the #TSAntiHeroChallenge on Friday morning (Oct. 21), inviting her fans to “share their anti-heroic traits” to the strains of the pop tune about looking in the mirror and seeing the real you.

“The #TSAntiHeroChallenge is all about acknowledging and celebrating the traits that make each of us truly unique and showcasing one’s true self in a FUN way,” reads a prompt for the viral challenge.” An anti-heroic trait could be as simple as always grabbing the last slice of pizza, clapping at the end of movies, always putting your feet on the car dashboard, using the same word to start your daily Wordle, leaving your clean laundry in the basket until the next time you do it, pretending you didn’t already watch the next episode of the series you watch with your pals, or even treating your cat like a human. Anything goes!”

The rules are pretty simple: watch the “Anti-Hero” video — written and directed by Swift and featuring some classic comedic cameos — then think about which anti-heroic traits you have, go to YouTube Shorts, create a short, add sound from “Anti-Hero,” then the #TSAntiHeroChallenge tag and publish.

Taylor primed the pump with a pair of Shorts video, including one in which she pokes fun at her anti-social, cat mom tendencies.

Check out the shorts below.

21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift Attends Her Own Funeral in Spooky ‘Anti-Hero’ Music Video: Watch

To celebrate the release of her highly anticipated 10th studio album Midnights, Taylor Swift dropped her first music video of the album era on Friday (Oct. 21) and Swifties will be dissecting this one for a while.

The super dramatic clip for “Anti-Hero” features Swift attending her own funeral, Tom Sawyer-style, doing shots and drinking wine straight from the bottle with her party hard doppelgänger and blowing up to 50-foot giant Tay size for a trippy Alice in Wonderland-style dinner party crash.

“Track three, ‘Anti-Hero,’ is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written,” Swift previously said of the song. “I really don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before.” The singer/songwriter directed and wrote the treatment for the five-minute clip that dropped on Friday morning. It opens with Taylor seated at a 1970s breakfast table in a kitschy home haunted by ghosts wearing sunglasses before she opens the door to find party Taylor waiting outside, reciting the instant classic line, “It’s me, hi/ I’m the problem, it’s me.”

The dynamic duo then down some shots as bad Tay smashes a guitar before oversized Swift crawls into a dinner scene and has her heart pierced by Cupid’s arrow, drawing purple glitter blood. Then it’s back to double Taylor bouncing on a bed and throwing back more shots (followed by purple glitter puke) before a dramatic interlude at her own funeral.

The reading of the will dramedy that unfolds amid the song/video that takes on insecurity and self-consciousness is heightened with cameos from comedians Mike Birbiglia (Don’t Think Twice) and John Early (Search Party), who battle over not-dead Taylor’s earthly possession with entitled daughter-in-law Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia). “Watch my nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts play out in real time,” Swift tweeted about the theme of the clip.

Sorry kids, there are no secret encoded messages or Easter eggs, the disappointed heirs find out as Taylor peeks at their misery from inside her coffin — which sits next to a classic Easter egg picture of aged-up cat lady Taylor cradling two armloads of kitties. After the room erupts into grief chaos, the clip ends with the two Taylors meeting up with Giant Taylor for a swig of bottled wine on a rooftop at night.

“I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized,” Swift continued in the video previewing the visual, aptly posted at midnight. “Not to sound too dark, but I just struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person — don’t feel bad for me, you don’t need to. But this song really is a real guided tour through all the things I tend to hate about myself; we all hate things about ourselves.”

Watch the “Anti-Hero” music video below.

21 Oct 2022

Weezer Announce ‘Weezerween’ Pumpkin Carving Contest With Very Special Prize

Weezer is truly a band for all seasons. But this year especially Halloween. Or, as they would put it: Weezerween. The pun-loving band announced a challenge on Thursday (Oct. 20) for superfans who are also crafty with a carving kit. The prize is seeing your handiwork in big, bold letters.

“We’re giving away a billboard for the best Weezer pumpkin,” the band tweeted along with a series of pumpkin and knife emoji. The rules for this unusual contest are super simple. “Time to whip out those pumpkin carving skills (painting or decorating encouraged too),” they explained. “Enter the contest for your chance to win your very own billboard somewhere in America!”

The project makes perfect sense for several reasons. For one, they just released the third in their planned quartet of SZNZ cycle albums, Autumn. But also they seem to be having some sort of billboard moment. It all started earlier this summer when Utah native Cory Winn blew up for renting a Salt Lake City-area billboard on which he wrote the band’s name in the universally recognized worst font possible: comic sans.

The band found out about the roadside attraction and so they rented their own billboard in Murray, Utah to say thank you, which reads, “Thanks to whoever bought the billboard down the road — Weezer.” The band will hit the stage at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday (Oct. 22) for Audacy’s We Can Survive show featuring Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Halsey, Tate McRae and OneRepublic in support of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and I’m Listening.

Check out the contest announcement and the billboard call-and-response below.

21 Oct 2022

The 1975 Dominate Australia’s Chart With ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’

The 1975 score a third leader in Australia as Being Funny In A Foreign Language (via Dirty Hit/RKT) blasts to the top.

Being Funny debuts at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart, following the British band’s best-sellers Notes On A Conditional Form (from 2020) and I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It (2016).

Produced by Jack Antonoff, Being Funny should hang around the national chart for a little while yet. Matt Healy and Co. will head Down Under for their At Their Very Best tour next April, with shows booked for Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

With their latest chart crown, The 1975 hold off The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Return of the Dream Canteen (Warner), the U.S. rock legends’ second release of 2020 The first, Unlimited Love, bowed at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart following its release in April.

Also new to the top tier is Ocean Alley with their fourth studio effort Low Altitude Living (UNFD/Orchard), new at No. 3. That’s an equal career high for Ocean Alley, whose previous album, Lonely Diamond from 2020, also hit No. 3. The psychedelic rock band from Sydney’s northern beaches enjoyed a breakthrough with their sophomore album from 2018, Chiaroscuro (peaking at No. 11 on the ARIA Chart), which yielded “Confidence,” the winner of triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown.

Meanwhile, Lil Baby blasts to No. 7 on the ARIA Albums Chart with his third studio effort It’s Only Me (Capitol/Universal), for his first appearance in the top 10, while U.S. rock band Alter Bridge bag a top 10 entry with Pawns & Kings (Orchard), their seventh studio album. It’s new No. 9.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, published Friday (Oct. 21), Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” (Capitol/Universal) remains glued to the top spot, while Oliver Tree and Robin Schulz’s “Miss You” flies 52-4 for its first stint in the top 10.

Further down the tally, singles from Imagine Dragons (“Bones” at No. 45 via Interscope/Universal) and Lil Yachty (“Poland” at No. 49 via Universal) make their first appearances.

Finally, Blink-182 returns to the weekly survey with “Edging” (Columbia/Sony), the skate-rock band’s first recording with Tom DeLonge in a decade. It’s new at No. 50. The reunited band will tour Australia as part of a global tour in support of “Edging” and a forthcoming album.

21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift’s ‘Chaotic Surprise’ Is ‘Midnights (3am Edition),’ Featuring 7 Extra Tracks


Taylor Swift promised a “special very chaotic surprise” in the wee hours and she didn’t disappoint, by dropping a trove of extra Midnights tracks, seven in total.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

As the clock struck 3am ET, or midnight on the west coast, Swift dropped what she’s calling her “3am tracks.”

“Surprise!,” she writes on social media. “I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour. However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13.”

The fuller, 20-track version of Midnights is titled Midnights (3am Edition), and includes the previously-unannounced numbers “The Great War,” “Bigger Than The Whole Sky,” “Paris,” High Infidelity,” “Glitch,” “Would’ve, “Could’ve, Should’ve.’

“Lately,” she continues, “I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now.”

Earlier in the evening, Swift shared her recollections of the writing and recording process with Jack Antonoff. “This is our first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators,” she explained.

Swift had teased an early morning “chaotic surprise” when she revealed her busy diary for the Midnights release, including promotions and several TV appearances.

The action doesn’t end there. This morning at 8 a.m. ET sees premiere of the “Anti-Hero” music video, based on her diary entries, and a #TSAntiHeroChallenge on YouTube Shorts. Midnights lyric videos will roll out at 8 p.m.

After a weekend of soaking up those 20 new tunes, Swifties can tune into NBC on Monday, for Swift’s previously confirmed appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Then on Tuesday, Oct. 25, a second, unnamed Midnights music video will drop. And next Friday, Oct. 28, Swift will stop by the BBC for The Graham Norton Show in the U.K.

Stream Midnights (3am Edition) below.

21 Oct 2022

Taylor Swift Reflects on Midnights: ‘A Wild Ride of an Album’

After months of teases and ballgames, the journey to Taylor Swift’s Midnights has reached its conclusion.

Now, another trip begins, as Swifties everywhere drop everything, absorb the new record and share their thoughts online. TayTay herself has entered the discussion.

In the small hours, as the album trended on social media, the pop superstar reflected on her latest LP, her 10th studio effort, and first since her Billboard 200 chart-leader Evermore from 2020.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“Midnights is a wild ride of an album and I couldn’t be happier that my co pilot on this adventure was Jack Antonoff,” she writes, thanking her buddy, years-long collaborator and producer.

“He’s my friend for life (presumptuous I know but I stand by it) and we’ve been making music together for nearly a decade.”

However, she adds, “this is our first album we’ve done with just the two of us as main collaborators.”

Swift’s post captures good times along the way. Friends, laughter, candid moments, empty bottles of wine.

The new release, she continues in the social post, “really coalesced and flowed out of us when our partners (both actors) did a film together in Panama. Jack and I found ourselves back in New York, alone, recording every night, staying up late and exploring old memories and midnights past.”

Paying tribute to those who inspired the latest set, including Zoe Kravitz and Australian producer Keanu beats, the result “is a collage of intensity, highs and lows and ebbs and flows. Life can be dark, starry, cloudy, terrifying, electrifying, hot, cold, romantic or lonely,” Swift concludes. “Just like Midnights. Which is out now.”

History beckons for Taylor. If Midnights goes to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, she would tie Barbra Streisand for the most No. 1 albums by a female artist. Midnights would be Swift’s 11th album to top the survey, which would put her in a tie for third place all-time with Streisand, Bruce Springsteen and Drake for the most No. 1s since the chart originated in 1956. Only the Beatles (19 No. 1 albums) and Jay-Z (14) have amassed more than 11 leaders.

Swifties will want to play a part in that history.

21 Oct 2022

Arctic Monkeys Motor on With ‘The Car’: Stream It Now

Arctic Monkeys have new wheels.

With The Car (via Domino Recordings), the British indie-rockers’ seventh studio album, which left the garage at the stroke of midnight, the band will hope to keep a hot streak intact.

Every studio album from Arctic Monkeys has gone to No. 1 in the U.K., from their record-setting debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006), to Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009), Suck It and See (2011), AM (2013) and Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino (2018), a best-seller on vinyl. Also, frontman Alex Turner has led the national tally with his side project The Last Shadow Puppets.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Only Taylor Swift’s Midnights could spoil the chart party.

Produced by James Ford, The Car features ten new songs written by Turner, and includes the previously-released numbers “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball,” “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” and “Body Paint.”

“The way the project was put together this time was not unlike, what in my mind I imagine, making a movie might be like,” Turner tells Alternative Press. “Obviously, I have no idea what that’s actually like, but there was a longer post-production period in this, trying to take a lot more care of how everything fits together, the space and the dynamics within it… making it a thing that works from start to finish,” he added. “It isn’t like I haven’t been trying to do all along.”

Fully assembled it’s a lush, complex affair, and mature as a nightcap with a cigar.

South American tour dates in support of The Car run from Nov. 4 at Jeunesse Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, through to Nov. 19 at Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City. Live shows follow for Australia, then the U.K. and Europe, and another lap of North America is booked from next August.

Stream The Car below.

21 Oct 2022

NBA YoungBoy & Nicki Minaj Team Up for ‘I Admit’: Listen

NBA YoungBoy is celebrating his 23rd birthday with the release of his brand new album Ma, I Got a Family, which features a fresh new collaboration with Nicki Minaj titled “I Admit.”

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The rap duo previously teamed up on Mike WiLL Made-It’s 2020 single “What That Speed Bout!?” The Ma, I Got a Family cover art features YoungBoy with his sweet family, including his fiancée Jazlyn Mychelle and their two children.

The release marks YoungBoy’s fifth drop of 2022 following his Colors mixtape in January and The Last Slimeto in August. In March, he and DaBaby unveiled a collaborative project titled Better Than You and earlier this month, he released his 3800 Degrees mixtape. 

Meanwhile, Minaj is also on a music releasing streak. Her “Love In the Way” collaboration with Yung Blue followed the rapper’s Rick James-sampled “Super Freaky Girl,” which topped the Hot 100 in late August, earning the Queen of Rap her first solo No. 1 hit. Prior to that, Minaj ruled the Hot 100 with her feature appearances on “Trollz” alongside the controversial 6ix9ine and on the remix to Doja Cat’s “Say So.”

Listen to “I Admit” below.

21 Oct 2022

BTS‘ Jin Surprise Releases ‘Super Tuna,’ ‘Abyss’ And ‘Tonight’ For Streaming: Listen

Hours after Jin surprised fans with news that he’d debut his new solo single “The Astronaut” live at Coldplay‘s upcoming Buenos Aires show, the BTS singer delivered yet another gift for ARMY.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

At midnight on Friday, Oct. 20, Jin’s three solo songs “Super Tuna,” “Abyss” and “Tonight” became available across all streaming services via BIGHIT MUSIC.

Previously, the singles released between 2019-2021 were only available across the group’s SoundCloud and YouTube accounts.

Let’s break down the three songs for those needing a refresher.

Released in June 2019 as part of BTS’ sixth-anniversary celebrations, “Tonight” was Jin’s first entirely original solo song uploaded to the group’s SoundCloud. Jin and BTS leader RM wrote the acoustic R&B-pop track alongside longtime collaborators Slow Rabbit and Hiss Noise, highlighting Jin’s airy falsetto over production that shifts from sparse guitar to an emotional mix of piano and synthesizers. “Tonight” has garnered more than 53 million streams on BTS’ SoundCloud.

To celebrate his birthday in December 2020, Jin released the moving, personal ballad “Abyss,” which shared an honest look at his grappling with performance anxiety, his insecurities, and burnout. The track was also written by Jin and RM, alongside longtime BTS producer Pdogg, and BUMZU who produced the song and is known for his heavy involvement with artists like SEVENTEEN and NU’EST. “Abyss” has more than 29 million streams on SoundCloud and 31.5 million streams on YouTube.

As another birthday present for ARMY in 2021, Jin switched things up entirely with his super-fun, super-synth track “Super Tuna,” which became an unexpected viral hit even without global distribution. The one-minute song was written and produced by Jin and BUMZU with “Super Tuna” with its accompanying choreography video taking a life of its own and garnering tons of covers across TikTok that even had the Teletubbies joining.

So far, “Super Tuna” has peaked at No. 4 on the weekly Hot Trending Songs Chart and currently sits at No. 11 after 45 weeks. Its choreography video has more than 76 million views on YouTube, plus more than 8.1 million streams on SoundCloud.

The new releases come ahead of Jin’s forthcoming solo single “The Astronaut,” co-written by Jin and Coldplay. The song drops one week from now at midnight on Oct. 28. BTS shared that concept photos, a music video and a lyric video all promised as part of the rollout for the track.

Listen to the new Jin songs here.