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 …
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Kid Cudi is helping launch a new fan interaction app called Encore, the app developers announced on Wednesday. He joins a growing slate of artists putting their entrepreneurial weight behind hopeful music startups since the pandemic began in March. Cudi is the co-founder and chief creative officer of Encore, a …
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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,” …
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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 …
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Talent agencies made steep staff layoffs at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. But now, several departed agents from Paradigm — one of the major music agencies that announced cuts — have announced their own company, carrying over prominent touring acts including The War on Drugs, Chvrches, and Courtney Barnett. …
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MTV‘s annual Video Music Awards are the network’s most well-known television offering. So when it decided to press forward with this year’s ceremony on Sunday, August 30th as a live show — making the 2020 VMAs the first major live awards show to take place since COVID-19 shut down events …
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TikTok is launching a $200 million fund to pay creators, the fast-growing video app announced on Thursday — representing the largest and most direct means of TikTok paying its users to date. In recent years, TikTok has proven a breeding ground for stars, with music labels and Hollywood talent agencies …
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Weeks after music’s Blackout Tuesday, which sparked a plethora of heated, industry-wide conversations about systemic racism, companies and executives are still debating the use of the word “urban” in job titles, awards categories, and other facets of the music business. While not all organizations are in agreement about what to …
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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 …
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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 …
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