Don Schlitz, one of the most widely revered names in the history of country music songwriting, died April 16 in a Nashville hospital after what was described as a sudden illness. He was 73.
Coachella has had countless bombshell moments over the decades, and so far this year it’s had surprise guest appearances from Madonna, SZA, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg, Olivia Rodrigo and Billy Idol, among others.
Billboard Women in Music 2026 Hitmaker Award recipient Tate McRae opens up about her artistic journey, songwriting process and the raw vulnerability that drives her music.
Jennifer Hudson delivered a musical performance from 'Dreamgirls,' the 2006 film in which she co-starred with Murphy, at the American Film Institute's 2026 ceremony.
Ella Langley is not just a singles phenomenon. “Choosin’ Texas” has spent a phenomenal six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 this year, but that is hardly the last word on her chart successes for 2026. Her “Dandelion” album has ridden the ubiquity of that song to a No. 1 debut on the […]
The mother of Beyoncé is preparing for the re-release of her 2025 memoir.
Plus: Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter return to the top 10 after headlining Coachella’s first weekend.
Blue Origin's reused first stage hit its targets, but New Glenn's upper stage did not.
The pop stars collaborated during Carpenter’s headlining performance on April 17.
The Indigo Girls have been receiving an outpouring of support and love from fans and famous admirers, after the duo released a video statement in which Emily Saliers got exceptionally frank about how two incurable physical conditions she’s experiencing will adversely affect her vocals on their...
“Your f—king employees are being disrespectful," the rapper is heard yelling on Instagram Live.
The city government estimates an attendance of more than 130,000 people at an emotional evening that also featured a performance by Ximena Sariñana.
Sexyy Red, Big Sean, and Dijon also stop by during singer's Weekend Two headlining gig
Billboard Women in Music 2026 Innovator honoree Laufey shares why collaboration and innovation are central to her artistry. She explains how performing with artists from different genres, like Benson Boone, Hozier and KATSEYE, gives her the chance to hear her voice in a new light and show that she...
Sexyy Red and Big Sean were among the surprise appearances at the superstar singer's April 18 performance.
Singer makes another surprise Coachella appearance, joining Rae on "Headphones On" before live premiere of You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love single
The Strokes ended their performance on weekend 2 of Coachella on a note of political protest, capping the set with a video montage that accused the CIA of enacting regime change in foreign countries over the decades, finally concluding with footage of Israel bombing Gaza and the United States...
The laser was used to study the physics of stellar interiors and fusion energy, among other things.
Justin Bieber brought out the big guns during his Coachella weekend two headlining set, tapping Sexyy Red, Billie Eilish and SZA as he took a trip down memory lane through his discography.
The performance also saw appearances from Australian DJ Ninajirachi, alongside actor Tyriq Withers, Chase Infiniti, Slayyyter, and Manon.
As she reached the end of her Coachella weekend two set, Addison Rae paused to ask the audience if they had heard “any new music this week.” On cue, Olivia Rodrigo emerged from the back of the stage, joining the pop singer for a pair of duets. Rodrigo first sang with Rae on the latter’s […]
1 You reach a point where you no longer believe. I was doing an interview and I was asked who my heroes were. Stunningly, I’ve never been asked this before. Normally you put a dime in my jukebox and you get endless spiel, these stories are embedded in my DNA. But I was stumped, I […]
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Swiss soccer club FC Basel has canceled an upcoming concert from Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, explaining that supporting the show was not “in accordance with our values.” Representatives for FC Basel told Reuters that they reviewed the request for the concert and ultimately decided...
Record Store Day may know what it’s doing, traditionally scheduling the biggest sales day of the year for independent music retailers on the Saturday after tax day.
Soon after surprise Coachella performance with Sabrina Carpenter, Material Girl shares “first taste” of new album but not the “lead single”
The sharks might also be the most physiologically vulnerable to warming waters.
A $322 million default judgment against Anna’s Archive looks like a major copyright victory for Spotify and the major labels—but it also exposes a deeper problem.
Carpenter brought out the pop icon for a performance that ignited Weekend Two
After rumors swirled that she would appear at Coachella weekend one, Madonna made a cameo during Sabrina Carpenter’s headlining performance on Friday night, emerging near the end of the set to perform “Vogue,” “Like a Prayer” and a new duet.
The Polish stadium where Kanye West was set to perform in June has cancelled his appearance, after he postponed a show in France amid public outcry. Kanye’s concert at a stadium in Chorzów, Poland, has been cancelled by stadium managers, just days after the controversial rapper postponed a show in...
The singer reposted video of the fast food debacle alongside a snippet of what seemed to be an unreleased track
Here’s a recap of recent music industry hires and in-house promotions as of April 17th, 2026. If you have a job shuffle to share, we’re all ears. Send us a note to news@digitalmusicnews.com. If you’d like to post a job on our Job Board, just send us a request to noah@digitalmusicnews.com.
Right on cue, Tresóna Multimedia has fired off an amended false advertising lawsuit, including a fresh copyright infringement claim, against ClicknClear.
Tune in Saturday April 18th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
This series really doesn’t kick in until the fourth episode (of six). Before that… I was wincing at some of the fights, which were extended and choreographed to the point you thought you were watching a lame kung fu movie. And the plot twists? They overtook the main plot itself.
The brand is bigger than the acts. Which is why so many festivals have failed recently, they believe it’s about the lineup. If you’re dependent upon the lineup to sell tickets, you’re screwed. You need to be selling more than music, you need to be selling CULTURE!
The biggest music biopic ever? A heavily edited version of Michael is about to hit theaters, but can it top Bohemian Rhapsody at the box office? We’re about to find out.
Grinex says needed hacking resources "available exclusively to ... unfriendly states."
The pop star, who did not reveal the reason he was hospitalized, shared the health update via Instagram with a photo of himself in a hospital bed
“The shows will of course go on,” manager Rod Smallwood says, noting band will stick to its Australia tour instead
Probation for man who used stolen logins and posted private info on social media.
She's well qualified but will need to navigate RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine agenda.
The pop star made the revelation during an appearance on Apple Music 1’s New Music Daily with Zane Lowe
The Texas parents learned of the arrest while still fighting grand-jury subpoenas seeking to haul them in front of a panel in Los Angeles
NPR has received a pair of charitable donations totaling $113 million, enabling it to continue operations after federal funding cuts. Public broadcasting organization NPR has announced a pair of charitable donations that totaled $113 million, which will enable it to continue operations after...
One of the three men charged in the killing of Run-D.M.C.’s Jam Master Jay in 2002 plans to plead guilty, court records reveal. Jay Bryant, who was indicted in 2023 in connection to the 2002 killing of Run-D.M.C.’s Jam Master Jay, pleaded not guilty to murder, but his lawyer told the court that...
Is $20,000–$25,000 a sweet spot for secondhand electric cars? We think so.
Data centers face construction delays and energy bottleneck as resistance grows.
The two newest Fire Sticks block apps from outside of Amazon's store.
Universal Music Group’s betting big on jazz with a slate of reissues as well as the official debut of an Everything Jazz digital platform and online store.
"The world that was, doesn't exist. It's just us, trying to hold onto what was."
Chartmetric makes it easier for indie artists to compete, with features for playlist pitching, social strategy, and brand affinity insights. All in one place.
"I've been thinking about reentry for three straight years."
New iPhone app Gigs uses AI to turn old tickets, screenshots, and emails into a personal concert archive with stats, memories, and more.
In the complex world of music reporting and rights management, cue sheets remain the backbone of tracking song usage. They help ensure that composers, publishers, performers, and rights holders each get paid according to their split.
Prices for "critical components" are surging because of massive data center investments.
The biggest headlines from the past few days... Source
Blue Origin will soon launch the third flight of its New Glenn rocket, this time with a reused booster.
Pirate site Anna’s Archive hit with $322M default judgment over music scraping — but will Spotify and record labels ever see the money? — “The judge’s ruling also requires internet service providers including Cloudflare to disable access to Anna’s Archive’s domain names and prevent websites that...
Ahead of the second weekend of the Coachella festival, with the Stagecoach festival to follow later in the month, California’s governor Gavin Newsom has published a Big Number on the two events’ economic value to the state.
Venerable US jam-band The Grateful Dead have one of the largest archives of live recordings, thanks to their longstanding policy of supporting fans who wanted to tape their shows. Now their vault of recordings is opening up in hi-res form, in partnership with Rhino Entertainment and Nugs.
The UK parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee has published its ‘Fan-Led Review of Live and Electronic Music’ report after nearly a year of consultation with fans and the industry.
Global advertising body the IAB and PwC have released their ‘2025 Internet Advertising Revenue Report’, which tracks a 13.9% increase in those revenue last year to $294.6bn – a record total. Within that, social advertising revenues grew by 32.6% to $117.7bn, and are now 40% of alll digital...
Country sensation Ella Langley is celebrating the release of her sophomore album ‘Dandelion’ with an in-app TikTok experience. While commonplace for major artists, this highlights her rapid rise seeing as the artist released her debut album in 2024.
Coachella weekend one just wrapped. Here are the highlights for artist teams: Justin Bieber leaned into millennial nostalgia, triggering his biggest streaming day since 2025 and a 24.6 million stream surge.
This week lyric licensing and data company LyricFind announced Artist Unlimited, a new subscription plan which allows artists to create professional-tier videos using software courtesy of Rotor Videos.
“I started my management company upstairs on the fifth floor,” Yungblud’s manager Tommas Arnby told Music Ally from the artist’s new brick and mortar shop, Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized (B.r.a.t.) on Denmark Street in London. “There were two desks and a bunch of mice.” Arnby is...
Last September, Spotify announced a series of measures relating to AI music, spam and deepfakes. They included supporting – and, indeed, revealing for the first time – a new industry standard for music credits to make it clear how and when AI is used in music tracks.
Shankar, who currently leads TuneCore in the region, will expand her remit across Believe’s Artist Services business. Source
Here's which players are winning the race to transition to post-quantum crypto.
Track: Justė, Jaxstyle, Jon – “Turn The Lights Off”Released: 7 Nov 2025Label: Spinnin’ Records (Warner Music Group) Metrics: Over 37m million streams on Spotify 1bn global radio plays #1 across Europe’s Shazam charts #1 in Poland for six weeks, three weeks in Sweden Featured on BBC Radio 1 Rising...
New digital hub combines e-commerce and editorial content focused on jazz repertoire and culture. Source
Brazilian footballing legend Ronaldinho was renowned for his silky skills on the pitch, not to mention legendary partying abilities. The post is from Music Ally.
It’s time to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster once and for all – at least according to multiple state attorneys general, who are demanding, among other things, an end to “Live Nation’s hold on the live entertainment industry.” We highlighted the earliest of these demands yesterday, when...
Singer D4vd has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the 14-year-old girl whose body was found last year in the trunk of his abandoned car. Los Angeles police have confirmed the arrest of 21-year-old singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, on suspicion of killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas...
The Tennessee House Finance, Ways and Means Committee voted 11-15 to block the state’s Live Music Support Act, despite strong bipartisan support. Tennessee’s House Finance, Ways and Means Committee has blocked legislation in an 11-15 vote that would have provided funding to independent music venues...
Lana Del Rey sings the title track to the new James Bond game, years after she recorded a song for the franchise that was ultimately passed over. Fans of the James Bond franchise have long suspected that Lana Del Rey had a hand in the latest video game, “007: First Light,” since she registered a […]
Europe's first Mars rover mission is now on its fourth rocket: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy
As Universal Music’s board considers Pershing Square’s unsolicited $64 billion takeover proposal, two Pershing entities are moving forward with plans to launch an up to $10 billion combined IPO.
"The old protect the young, and then the young protect the old."
For the first time in a while, the benefits of new Intel tech will trickle down.
GPT-Rosalind is an LLM trained on biology workflows, available in closed access.
"If you had given us the keys to the lander, we would have taken it down."
New tool builds on deepset’s Haystack toward a “decentralized open source AI ecosystem.”
Each year, Coachella and Stagecoach generate a staggering $700 million for California’s local economy, according to Governor Gavin Newsom. As California continues to lead the nation as a global hub for culture and live events, Governor Gavin Newsom has highlighted the significant economic impact of...
YouTube expands its time management settings to include a zero-minute time limit on Shorts, effectively letting you disable them in your app. YouTube has read the room, and now allows you to put a zero-minute time limit on Shorts from the app’s time management settings.
An unannounced Teenage Engineering device, the KO-Amp 35, can be found over at the FCC in a new filing. The label clearly marks it as a member of the midrange EP family instruments, which currently includes the KO-II and its spinoffs, the Riddim and the Medieval.
Spotify teams up with Bookshop.org to enable readers to purchase physical books through the Spotify app, pairing well with Spotify’s Page Match. In the latest move to broaden its horizons and expand into book territory, Spotify has announced a collaboration with Bookshop.org that allows readers to...
News arrives as live music becomes an increasingly important revenue stream for K-pop's biggest companies Source
Hot off her Coachella set, Laufey has been unveiled as the Fortnite Festival Season 14 headliner as the artist’s star keeps ascending. It’s been a busy year for Laufey. The Grammy-winning artist just played Coachella, and that’s on top of a major Lexus tie-up concert on Amazon Music/Twitch.
South Asian actors are far likelier to make it to Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World than south Asian musicians, so it helps […] The post is from Music Ally.
Is “K-pop Coachella” on the way? Possibly, as rival agencies Hybe, SM, JYP, and YG have moved to collaborate on a global music festival showcasing their signed acts.
During her keynote address at the All About Music conference in Mumbai in August 2025, IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley said that India had “192m users on free streaming in India, […] The post is from Music Ally.
Live Nation antitrust verdict explained Source
Over the last few years, Coachella has made substantial changes to its programming. New stages, surprise headliners, and most notably, fewer and fewer artists. Here are the numbers behind Coachella lineups post-pandemic.
TuneCore is celebrating its 20th anniversary. MBW meets up with two of its senior execs to reflect on the journey so far, the careers launched and the lessons learned – as well as a look at the current landscape and where the company might go next… Source
For most of recorded music history, quality was scarce. Recording, producing, and distributing a song that sounded “good” required significant investments of time, money, and skill, along with access to gatekeepers, who carefully filtered what entered the system. Source
At Spotify, we want your experience to feel intuitive and personal across every moment of the day. Whether you’re streaming your favorite playlist while you work or browsing new recommendations on the go, Spotify should feel familiar and easy to use.
The act's streaming and physical sales in Japan made them the world's 13th biggest-selling act in 2025 — without an international campaign. UMG says their global push is still to come. Source
Fortnite’s in-game music game Festival is into its 14th season now, having originally launched in December 2023. As ever, the season has an artist as its headliner: Laufey is the star this time round. Yes, Fortnite meets jazz-pop! With an avatar in a giant rabbit head on drums, obvs.
Coldplay’s last studio album came out in October 2024. Dua Lipa’s came out in May that year. Arctic Monkeys’ last long-player was released in October 2022. And Calvin Harris’s came out in August 2024. Why are we reeling off the most-recent album release-dates for British artists?
Firm says original sample creators will be compensated when their sounds are used to generate new material Source
Spotify and the three major labels have won a $322 million default judgement against Anna's Archive, the open-source library and pirate activist group that planned to publicly release millions of music files scraped from Spotify's platform.
Musician G. Love says he lost his retirement nest egg, a smattering of Bitcoin, due to a scam app on the App Store. “I had a really tough day today I lost my retirement fund to a hack/scam when I switched my ledger [hardware wallet] over to a new computer and by accident downloaded a […]
Grammy-winning songwriter formalizes expanded partnership with WCM as company deepens ties to Latin repertoire and writer development. Source
Can a commercial recording studio still thrive in the age of AI, home recording, and constant industry change? In this episode of Bobby Owsinski’s Inner Circle, Bobby Owsinski sits down with Tom Weir, Grammy-winning engineer and owner of Studio City Sound.
Spotify and the major labels secure a victory against Anna’s Archive to the tune of $322 million—but who’s going to pay all that, exactly? Operators of the shadow library meta-search platform Anna’s Archive failed to appear in court after Spotify and major labels like Universal, Sony, and Warner...
Landmark verdict could reshape the live entertainment industry. Source
From gripping thrillers to poignant memoirs, the 21st century has had no shortage of unforgettable books. To celebrate the standout storytelling of our modern era, we’re launching Best of the Century So Far—a curated audiobook collection of titles released each year between 2001 and 2025,...
For many artists, independent venues are where music careers begin and fan communities take shape. Independent venue operators work hard every day to keep local scenes thriving as they navigate a rapidly evolving live music landscape.
Books have always moved with us, whether tucked in our bags or humming in our headphones. With audiobooks, Spotify is building new ways to bring our favorite stories along for the ride. Just over two years after launching, Audiobooks in Premium is now live in 22 markets.
Scroll around the internet and you’ll find a lot of grumbling about subscription prices. Nowadays, everything is a subscription – audio streaming, video streaming, gaming, software, plugins, workstations, AI models, and no doubt several other categories I can’t think of right now.
The creator economy used to be an adjacent entertainment ecosystem to traditional entertainment. Those days are numbered – if not over already. Creators are now a foundational component in how traditional entertainment produces and distributes content at scale. Source
From immersive storytelling to laugh-out-loud comedies, podcasts are booming in popularity across Mexico and Latin America. That’s why we’re excited to announce that next month, Mexico’s biggest podcast celebration, the Spotify Podcast Awards, are back.
A lot of attention is being paid to the “rules of engagement” for podcasting: format preferences, video versus audio, and platform battles like YouTube versus Spotify. The industry is deeply focused on how and where audiences are consuming podcasts, and rightly so. Source
After failing in Congress, the White House is pressuring states to weaken AI safeguards, tying funding threats to policy outcomes and quietly reshaping laws that govern emerging technology today nationwide.
This is a copy of the job description at:https://join.com/companies/metabrainzorg/15986127-executive-directorPlease use the above link to apply. The MetaBrainz Foundation is seeking a new Executive Director (ED) to lead it during a time of great change for how music, data, and code are made, shared...
This past Saturday at the Coachella music festival, Justin Bieber played the first of two headlining sets in a deal reportedly worth $10 million. It was his most significant solo performance in years. But Bieber spent some of his time on stage the way many of us do on Saturday nights: on YouTube.
Coachella kicked off on Friday, and as usual, it's the place to be for online influencers looking to show off their memorable experiences at the festival.