From the featured section of Instagram’s Explore tab, they oozed a kind of sun-dappled cool obtainable only above a certain income threshold in the state of California. It was clear who the people in the photos were. What wasn’t obvious — largely due to the surreality of social media and …
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This story appears in Rolling Stone‘s 2021 Future of Music issue, a special project delving into the next era of the multibillion-dollar hitmaking business. Read the other stories here. In 2017, Jon Tanners, a music manager and former music journalist who held various A&R and marketing jobs at record labels, …
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Martha Reeves, of Martha and the Vandellas, started her life on the road in 1962, cramming into a bus with Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and other soon-to-be legends for the very first Motown tour. It was hardly luxurious, with everyone sleeping on each other’s shoulders, and washing their “unmentionables” in …
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Not long ago, Fortnite was merely a popular video game. In 2020 — after hosting Travis Scott’s record-breaking “Astronomical” in-game virtual concert, which drew 12 million fans and catapulted his new single “The Scotts” to a Number One debut — it became an unexpected champion of the music industry. Fortnite …
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On February 21st, the rock band Younger Hunger released “Yung,” a new single that cataloged a litany of horrors — everything from stubbed toes to poisonous salads to vehicular manslaughter — on its way to a chorus that is stirring and alarming in equal measure: “They’re comin’ for my life!” …
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Last year, the singer-songwriter Cavetown, who has amassed a small but fervent following releasing frank, hushed guitar pop, signed a deal with Sire Records. In the weeks leading up to his major-label debut, he had developed a detailed rollout plan. “We had pop-ups planned in New York, Philly, and London,” …
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Days after the cascade of music-tour suspensions in the U.S. due to the coronavirus crisis, Bandcamp, an online music and merch shop, announced it would waive its revenue cut for a day to support the artists using the platform. Bandcamp’s CEO Ethan Diamond revealed Monday that fans spent $4.3 million …
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The recorded music divisions of the Big Three record labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group) generated more than $1 million every hour from streaming alone in Q4 last year. When Music Business Worldwide announced these calculations last week, it caused a stir in the global …
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