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I . They come in droves, teeth and Bvlgari gleaming. Their smiles are tolerant for the red carpet step-and-repeat and much more earnest, earned, once they’re safely past the guarded double doors. In the room all together, they make up a living museum — a sentient Coachella poster, a Forbes …

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. Entertainment lawyer Henderson Cole had spent years studying music’s tangled payment system, frustrated by how ill-adapted it was for the streaming …

Wiz Khalifa, who is one of the world’s top recording artists, is an avid fighting enthusiast. So much so that he’s placed his financial backing into the Professional Fight League (PFL) as part of its ownership group. After starting as a boxing fan and subsequently gaining attraction to MMA, Khalifa …

Music streaming can be something of a catch-22 for fledgling artists: You can’t break through without impressive streaming numbers, and it’s hard to get impressive streaming numbers without breaking through. Spotify is making an attempt at leveling the playing field. On Wednesday (May 26th), the streaming service announced its new …

Tidal announced Thursday that a majority ownership share in the streaming service had been purchased by the financial service company Square, owned by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. Square will pay $297 million in cash and stock for the “significant” majority ownership stake in Tidal, after which time Jay-Z, as a Tidal …

Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, has launched a paid internship program specifically for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the company announced Thursday. UMG partnered with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which represents publicly funded HBCUs across the country, calling itself the largest organization representing black colleges exclusively. …

Following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, music executives Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas were exhausted. They wanted time to rest and process — so the friends planned a day away from their normal jobs and created a hashtag, #TheShowMustBePaused, to explain the significance of doing …

Indie band Mother Mother formed in 2005, but it just made an entrance on Rolling Stone’sArtists 500 Chartlast week. The Vancouver-based group also debuted at Number 11 on September’s Breakthrough 25 Chart, which monitors the fastest-rising artists each month. Even though Mother Mother hasn’t released new music in two years, …

Muzak is in trouble. Since 1934, the popular company has been providing retailers with musical strategies to boost worker productivity, encourage consumerism, and manipulate mood in a brick-and-mortar experience. Muzak was purchased in 2011 by Austin-based Mood Media, which also specializes in the manipulative power of carefully curated scents, decor, …

The fortunes of the global record industry can be neatly summed up in three stats: Its peak came in 1999, back when Ricky Martin wasLivin’ La Vida Loca, as the world’s record companies generated nearly$29 billion; by the close of 2013, according to IFPI data, that number had been slashed …