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Shazam star Zachary Levi endorsed Donald Trump at an event supporting his presidential campaign, drawing sharp criticism from many people on social media.
Last Saturday(September 28), Shazam star Zachary Levi threw his weight behind Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The actor was moderating a talk with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard at an event supporting Trump held in Dearborn, Michigan. Before the interview began, he said: “We’re here to make sure that we are going to take back this country. We are going to make it great again. We are going to make it healthy again. And so, I stand with Bobby, and I stand with Tulsi, and I stand with everyone else who is standing with President Trump.”

“In a perfect world, in whatever that would look like, perhaps I would have voted for Bobby,” Levi continued. “But we don’t live in a perfect world. In fact, we live in a very broken one. We live in a country that has been hijacked by a lot of people who want to take this place way off the cliff, and we’re here to stop that.” Toward the end of the conversation with RFK Jr. and Gabbard who are part of the “Team Trump” campaign team, the 44-year-old actor admitted that his public endorsement of the former president could damage his career, but he was raised to “have a healthy distrust of the government” and that Trump represents what he wants to support. “Within my industry, as you can probably imagine, Hollywood is a very, very liberal town and this very well could constitute career suicide, so I’m glad I did it with you guys,” he said to the crowd.
Levi, who gained fame in the Chuck television series and joined the DC Universe as Shazam with two films in 2019 and 2023. It is undetermined if he’ll return to the role with new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran in charge. He’s been open about his political views, declaring that he was a “libertarian” in a post on X, formerly Twitter in 2020. He’s also garnered criticism for those views, particularly concerning the COVID-19 vaccines last year. The responses to Levi’s endorsement on social media ranged from disappointment to dismissal, with many likening him to another controversial actor, Gina Carano.

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In the wake of a 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony that dealt heavily in French indie and electronic music, one of the featured songs — Kavinsky‘s 2010 electronic classic “Nightcall” — has experienced a major streaming surge. On Saturday (Aug. 10), the day before the Closing Ceremony was held in Paris, “Nightcall” had 281,000 total global […]

Ticketmaster partnered with Shazam for a deal allowing artists to link to their Ticketmaster-listed events directly in the Shazam app. Through that integration, Shazam users will be able to see where that artist is playing and buy tickets to their show “with just a few clicks” after Shazaming their music, according to a Ticketmaster blog post. The ticketing giant previously announced similar integrations with TikTok and Snapchat.
Fraud detection company Beatdapp Software partnered with Beatport, a digital service that offers high-quality downloads for DJs to use in live sets, in a deal that aims to banish fraudulent activities on Beatport by integrating Beatdapp’s fraud detection technology into the platform. “We launched streaming products under the Beatport and Beatsource brands in 2019, and despite the fact that they have not historically been a target for streaming fraud, suspicious activity has been on the rise in recent months,” said Helen Sartory, chief revenue officer of The Beatport Group, in a statement. “Although our fraud rates still remain half that of the industry average, we rely on accurate streaming data not only to preserve fair compensation to artists and labels, but also for track recommendations and analytics. We are excited to be able to work with Beatdapp to ensure that our data is representative of authentic listener engagement.”

Virgin Music Group announced a “strategic relationship” with Frontier Works, a Japanese animation-related content production company, to release anime music projects. Virgin will provide Frontier Works with access to its music distribution and marketing platform and global team to support Frontier releases worldwide. This includes Virgin’s AI-driven music marketing technology, which filters streaming data “to create dynamic and actionable insights,” as well as “Smart Audience,” an advertising platform that uses “ethical AI” to increase fan engagement and help drive streaming consumption, according to a press release.

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Believe acquired a 25% stake in Global Records, an independent dance music company covering Central and Eastern Europe, and signed a strategic partnership with the label. The acquisition expands Believe and Global Records’ existing relationship, which since 2016 has allowed the latter to ramp up its territorial expansion and catalog development, according to a press release. Global Records’ catalog racked up more than 6 billion streams across all platforms last year alone and has seen more than 20 billion streams to date, the release adds. Global’s roster includes INNA, Minelli, Carla’s Dreams, Antonia and Holy Molly; it has offices in Germany, Romania and the United States.

Artist manager Matt Musacchio‘s Champ Management partnered with Red Light Management in a deal that brings Vincent Mason, Jessie James Decker and Dawson Anderson to the Red Light roster. Kyle Marsh will also join the Red Light team as a day-to-day manager.

ASM Global expanded its reach into Portugal by taking on the operation of two venue spaces located in Lisbon’s LX Factory, which is located inside a converted factory complex in the Alcantara area. ASM Global will additionally manage the venues’ adjacent outdoor bar, terrace and gallery spaces.

Web3 creator platform DRiP acquired limited-edition music platform Vault Music. Both platforms are on the Solana blockchain. Under the deal, all Vault Music drops and users will transition to the DRiP platform. “Vault was our first music partner on DRiP,” said CEO Vibhu Norby in a statement on the acquisition. “They did a phenomenal job harboring musicians from outside of the existing ecosystem, and we’re excited to help them continue that effort.”

ADA Canada signed a global distribution deal with country music label MCM Recordings, which is home to Jess Moskaluke, Charlie Major and The Redhill Valleys.

The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) extended its agreement with the International Copyright Enterprise (ICE) for several more years. According to a press release, the extended deal “will facilitate faster royalty payments to IMRO members for online performances of their works and enhanced usage transparency.” The release claims IMRO’s online revenue saw 30% growth in 2023.

Independent dance music label Armada Music signed a long-term partnership with Amsterdam-based DJ and producer KI/KI and her self-founded label, slash. Armada will work with KI/KI and her team on A&R, label management, distribution and promotion/marketing for upcoming slash releases. The first release under the joint venture is KI/KI’s latest EP, slash 010.

Apple-owned Shazam has introduced a new feature into its music identification app that will allow users to find nearby shows through recommendations based on their Shazam histories, it was announced on Wednesday (Oct. 25). The new feature, called simply Concerts, is already available to users in the Shazam app on iOS within the “My Music” […]

Apple Music wants to guide you to your next concert. On Tuesday (May 16), the platform launched a pair of new live music discovery tools intended to deliver users to global shows. The first of these tools lives on Apple Maps, where the service has launched guides for 14 global cities — Chicago, Detroit, Los […]

Shazam unveiled its annual predictions playlist on Wednesday (Jan. 4), compiling a 50-track selection of artists who have the potential to have a breakthrough year.

Based on the music discovery app’s predictive data and algorithms and in collaboration with Apple Music’s global editorial team, this year’s selection of artists show early indicators of future growth, including consistent momentum in Shazam activity, as well as discovery trends in more than one country.

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Ice Spice, Rosa Linn, Charlieonnafriday, Young Miko and Benson Boone top Shazam’s artists with global breakthrough potential. “It’s very cool to me that people from all around the world can discover my music through [Shazam],” Rosa Linn told Apple Music per a press release. “They can hear the song, like it, and instantly find out that it’s me who is singing it. I gain fans and listeners and it directly impacts streaming.”

“Shazam has always been so useful for me whenever I needed to find the title of a song playing,” Ice Spice added. “I’m happy that it exists!”

Additionally, for the first time, Shazam is spotlighting artists who are gaining popularity regionally. Nigeria’s Carterefe, France’s Adé, Japan’s natori, Colombia’s KEITYN and Spain’s Munic HB have all made the list due to their budding stardom. “I believe Shazam is an important gateway for my music to be discovered, especially in this busy lifestyle we live in,” natori, whose “Overdose” was the most-Shazamed debut single within J-Pop over the last year, told Apple Music.

Listen to the Shazam Predictions 2023 playlist exclusively on Apple Music worldwide at apple.co/shazampredictions23