Music Biz Features

In the decades since it became a leading merch company for indie bands from Pavement and Sonic Youth up through the White Stripes and Vampire Weekend, Tannis Root and its co-owner, Bill Mooney, have seen a lot — but nothing quite like this summer. Their team had just loaded boxes …

BERLIN — For three nights this week, the Arena Berlin, a concert venue in the German capital’s Treptow district, has been coming to life with strobing spotlights, thumping bass beats, and hundreds of boisterous Berliners. These are the first gatherings of their kind in the city since a year and …

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. What’s next in America after K-pop and reggaeton? Data has shown that U.S. listener taste is going more global with each …

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. Courtney Phillips’ job is to put people to sleep — quite literally. As the music head of wellness app Calm, she …

As a teenager, Leah Kate used to spend time each week trying to get the music industry to notice her. She would Google the names of her favorite artists’ producers, track down their emails, and send them Voice Notes; she’d email music publishers — “literally blast them with shit” — …

At the start of 2020, Andrew Jensen worked in hospitality. But two months into quarantine, he launched NoonChorus with his brother and co-founder, Alex Jensen. “The pandemic [has] highlighted the value for livestreaming for a lot of artists who likely wouldn’t have considered it as an option otherwise,” Andrew Jensen …

Eighteen years ago, Kanye West was proud as punch to have signed to Roc-A-Fella, which he called “the hottest rap label in the world.” West was a superproducer at this point, but leading figures in hip-hop doubted his abilities as a frontman. “I never really had a good rapper story,” …

A group of over a dozen black concert promoters in the U.S. is working to address longstanding inequality in their industry — which members say has made it a challenge for them to stay competitive in an increasingly consolidated live music marketplace. The new organization, called The Black Promoters Collective …

According to the scarcity principle,the harder something is to obtain, the more people will be willing to to pay for it. The modern record industry doesn’t seem too keen on this thinking — having roundly dismissed the idea of limiting major new releases to paid-only platforms. But things are already …

At Workis a weeklyRolling Stoneseries examining how decision-makers across the music business spend their hectic days — as well as what burgeoning ideas they’re keen to explore, what advice they’d give to industry newcomers, and more. Readearlier interviews here. When it comes to meeting the needs of Walters-Storyk Design Group’s …