Innholdsfortegnelse for Nov-08-14 i Billboard Magazine

IRISH SINGER-SONGWRITER Hozier, 24, soars into the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 as “Take Me to Church” blasts 33-9. It vaults 13-2 on Digital Songs, surging by 107 percent to 132,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and moves 22-10 on On-Demand Songs (2.3 million U.S. streams, up 43 percent, according to Nielsen BDS). “Church,” which Hozier (born Andrew Hozier-Byrne) penned as a protest against organized religion and homophobia, was released more than year ago. So why is it rising now? The brooding song is in a new Beats by Dre ad (which highlights LeBron James’ return to the Cleveland Cavaliers), while Shazam recently blasted its 11 million email subscribers about Hozier, October’s #FeaturedByShazam artist. He also played NBC’s Saturday Night Live on Oct. 11. Hozier’s self-titled debut full-length debuted…

During the next two years, Congress could decide if pre-1972 recordings get a digital performance right, determine whether terrestrial radio pays performance royalties to record labels and review the Department of Justice’s rules for ASCAP and BMI. And there will be continued efforts toward a major copyright update. Now, the three questions related to the Nov. 4 election that will have a major influence on the next two years for the music business. 1. Who will lead the House Judiciary Subcommittee on intellectual property? With the retirement of Howard Coble (R-N.C.) sources say House Judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) could appoint self-described “techie”Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), an opponent of the Stop Online Piracy Act but a proponent of a performance right for terrestrial broadcasters. 2. Will Republicans win a majority in…

IN THE LATEST TWIST ON FANfunding business models, metal act Queensryche is offering followers a chance to share in future revenue that the band generates. For a minimum investment of $50,000, anyone who passes an independent accreditation process can purchase an equity ownership stake from a private consolidated holding company that entitles the investor to “a fixed percentage” of future revenue from such avenues as merchandise and music sales, according to attorney Marc LoPresti, who helped the band establish the limited liability corporation (LLC). “There is nothing they do as a unit, as Queensryche, that fans who invest will not be a part of,” says LoPresti, noting the band is “only” raising $2 million. While he declines to reveal details like the group’s annual revenue and what percentage an investor’s…

SENIOR VP MUSIC AT ABC TELEVISION BURBANK IS A LONG WAY FROM MUSIC City, but lots of things in Dawn Soler’s office show a love for Nashville, both the city and the TV show that has been in her care since its debut three seasons ago. She was the music supervisor for the first two episodes of Nashville before handing the reins to Frankie Pine, but it remains a focal point of her job as senior VP music for ABC Television. “I don’t think there has been a day since it started that at least some of my attention has not been on Nashville — not just the show, but also the franchise,” says Soler, 54. “We’ve been able to springboard it into other things, like our relationship with the…

10-22 The Red Bulletin deputy editor (and former Billboard Los Angeles bureau chief) Ann Donahue and her boyfriend, TV editor Scott Zarzycki, welcomed their son Cormac Zarzycki Donahue, weighing in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces. 10-24 British glam rocker Alvin Stardust died following a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 72. Sony/ATV Music Publishing inked a long-term worldwide deal with T.I. 10-25 Former Cream bassist Jack Bruce, who wrote and performed hits “I Feel Free” and “White Room,” died of liver disease at his home in Suffolk, England. He was 71. “We lost an incredible musician, writer and good friend,” tweeted Ringo Starr. A memorial for the late jazz legend Jimmy Scott, who died June 12 at age 88, was held at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Guests…

IT’S NOT THE NEW ATLANTA — IT’S THE real Atlanta,” says Raury. The 18-year-old rapper-singer, real name Raury Tullis, is at a photo shoot on a sunny October day in East Atlanta, where he and 11 other rising rappers and producers swap jokes and phone numbers and schedule future collaborations. The collective group is at the bleeding edge of an exciting movement that’s been called the New Atlanta, known for its oddball flows, minimalist beats and eccentric fashion. The city has a long hip-hop legacy, counting stars such as Outkast, T.I. and Jeezy, but it’s arguably never seen a wave of artists this deep, diverse and young. Thanks to this new generation, Atlanta has become hip-hop’s most important talent incubator, expanding the genre’s sound and style in new ways —…

The 2014-2015 NBA season kicked off Oct. 28, and players aren’t just readying their jump shots — they’re preparing their playlists. Top players (along with retired legends and current NBA on TNT analysts) reveal the pregame music they pump when they’re getting pumped up. Guard - Detroit Pistons “‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem, the greatest pregame song maybe ever. The first couple lines explain it all.” Forward - Dallas Mavericks “Right now I have the whole Sam Smith album [In the Lonely Hour] on repeat. He is unreal.” Guard - Los Angeles Clippers “Wale’s ‘Heaven’s Afternoon’ [featuring Meek Mill]. It gets me going, and Wale is one of my favorite rappers.” Guard - Los Angeles Lakers “‘Cornerstone’ by Hillsong. It reminds me that God is bigger than the results of the…

1 The video, which promotes OK Go’s fourth LP Hungry Ghosts (out now on the band’s Paracadute label), debuted Oct. 27 on NBC’s Today. It opens with the band dancing on UNI-CUBs, Segway-like wheeled stools steered by body shift that Honda, which funded the video, invented. OK Go broke through with 2006’s “Here It Goes Again” video, which features the members boogeying on treadmills. “There’s a goofy joy in watching the four of us try to dance,” says singer Damian Kulash (second from left). 2 OK Go roll outside (the video was shot at an abandoned mall in Chiba, Japan, outside Tokyo), and the camera suddenly shoots upward to give a bird’s-eye view of the Los Angeles-based band, now joined by dancers dressed as schoolgirls and twirling umbrellas. Director Morihiro…

The Gear, The Looks, The Trends 1 GOODMOUTH The Toucan toothbrush, $4.95 per delivery per month; goodmouth.com. 2 DR. JACKSON’S NATURAL PRODUCTS organic coconut melt, $15; mrporter.com. 3 PENHALIGON’S Bayolea beard and shave oil, $80; mrporter.com. 4 MALIN + GOETZ facial cleansing oil, $42; malinandgoetz.com. 5 BLIND BARBER watermint gin facial cleanser, $18; blindbarber.com/shop. 6 THE ART OF SHAVING engraved shaving brush, $250; theartofshaving.com. 7 THE ART OF SHAVING moustache scissor, $20; theartofshaving.com. 8 AESOP deodorant, $35; aesop.com. 9 MARVIS mouthwash concentrate in strong mint, $22.50; bigelowchemists.com. 10 BAXTER OF CALIFORNIA Base Camp X Cut-Throat razor, $350; baxterofcalifornia.com. 11 CZECH & SPEAKE Number 88 shaving soap refill, $35; mrporter.com. 12 BYREDO Mojave Ghost eau de parfum, $145; byredo.com.…

“People don’t think of you as a person. That’s why people don’t mind throwing darts. You have to remember it’s because you’re elevated,” says Lorde, photographed Oct. 8 at Milk Studios in Hollywood. Styling by Rebecca Grice. Lorde wears a vintage Raf Simons autumn/winter 2000-2001 bomber jacket from David Casavant Archive. ON THIS MID-OCTOBER FRIDAY, SAN DIEGO STATE University’s campus looks like a certain kind of college-goer’s paradise: guys in flip-flops and their tanned female counterparts lounge in the sunbaked quad, chatting about weekend plans, while dudes practice mixed martial arts moves on the lawn. Nearby, inside one of a fleet of buses sitting by the university’s amphitheater, it’s like another planet — cool, dark and still. Lorde, who turns 18 on Nov. 7, sits in a booth, assembling a…

When ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel playfully admonished his show’s music booker Scott Igoe on-air on Oct. 23 for refusing to let a 14-year-old Taylor Swift audition for him 10 years earlier, it was a rare moment of public recognition for a behind-the-scenes job. The gig is hard to come by. As Igoe’s equivalent at TBS’ Conan show, Jim Pitt, explained during Billboard’s first music bookers roundtable, “we don’t leave because it’s the best job in the world.” Pitt, 54, has spent 21 years as Conan O’Brien’s music segment producer and before that did the same for Saturday Night Live (SNL). The other participants have had similarly long runs: Monica Escobedo, 37, of Good Morning America (GMA), has been producing music and other entertainment segments at the ABC morning show…

IN REAL ESTATE, THERE’S THAT OLD SAYING about “location, location, location.” Say the word five more times and you’ve got the big, romantic idea behind the eighth Foo Fighters album: Eight songs written and recorded in eight studios in eight American cities. Sonic Highways arrives with an eight-episode HBO series of the same name, which traces the band’s attempt to absorb the history and spirit of each town and fold them into the familiar Foos aesthetic. To frontman and series creator Dave Grohl, who caught the directorial bug with 2013’s Sound City documentary, place still matters. But in making a series about how cities shape artists, Grohl wound up with an album about the unbendable force of the Foos’ sound. On opener “Something From Nothing,” cut in Chicago, he makes…

PRODUCERS The Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker LABEL Warner Bros. RELEASE DATE Oct. 28 IF THERE’S A RECORD IN THE SACRED BEATLES canon ripe for reimagining, it’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Released in June 1967, when the world was getting a little weird, this was the Fab Four’s blatant embrace of the changing times. Brilliant and whimsical, it’s considered by many to be the best album of all time, yet musicians seldom revisit its songs — making Sgt. Pepper’ fair game for mucking around with. Enter The Flaming Lips, who have already done track-for-track remakes of Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Stone Roses classics. Here, the Oklahoma altrockers burst out of their neo- psychedelic comfort bubble and get two dozen buds — including Miley Cyrus, Moby and…

Dionne Warwick, 73, has revisited her huge hit catalog many times, most recently on 2012’s Now: A Celebratory 50th Anniversary Album. But for her latest dip into the past, Feels So Good (Oct. 27, Bright Music), she opted to let some famous friends do the curating, including Cyndi Lauper (“A Message to Michael”), Gladys Knight (“I’ll Never Love This Way Again”) and “youngsters” like Ne-Yo (“A House Is Not a Home”) and Cee Lo Green (on the title cut, the album’s sole original). How did the concept for this album come about? My son Damon, who was the engineer and producer, came up with the idea. I said, “Well, I revisited these songs so many times.” And he said the difference is my duet partners : They decide which songs…

“BAILANDO” WAS ALWAYS A SPECIAL SONG, says Enrique Iglesias, “but you never really know. You don’t know how successful a song is going to be. I have a tendency to go with my gut. Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong. This one just felt special.” But it’s more than special — “Bailando” is now a record breaker. Adding to a host of career achievements, Iglesias claims the record for the longest-running No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart all to himself, as his megahit “Bailando” (featuring DescemerBueno and Gente de Zona) spends a 26th week at the top. It trumps previous record holder Shakira, whose “La Tortura” (featuring Alejandro Sanz) ruled for 25 weeks beginning in June 2005. Iglesias already holds the record for the most No. 1s on…

“ONCE I PICKED MY MOUTH UP off the floor, the idea of doing originals was intriguing,” says Geoff Bywater, head of music at Fox Television. He’s talking about the network’s high-stakes gamble, the music-focused new drama Empire, set to launch in January, with American Idol as a likely lead-in and promos already airing on maximumvisibility nights like Game 3 of the World Series on Oct. 24. The one-hour serial by Academy Award-winning director Lee Daniels (The Butler, Precious), starring Oscar nominees Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, is about a hip-hop family whose empire is threatened. It namechecks Dynasty in its soap-opera approach but seems to be looking to another ABC franchise, Nashville, for its music-industry plotlines and how to do non-covers right. Few networks have devoted the airtime, production…

Sam Smith was publishing’s big winner in the third quarter. His “Stay With Me” ranks first for airplay, with both Sony/ATV and Universal Music Publishing Group holding an interest in the ballad, while his guest turn on Disclosure’s “Latch” (UMPG) puts the radio staple in fifth place. As a songwriter, Smith also ranks fifth, behind his own co-writer James Napier, who’s credited for Clean Bandits’ “Rather Be” at No. 1. For its fifth consecutive quarter, Sony/ATV is the top publisher in the United States with a stake in 64 of the top 100 radio songs. Other big movers include country music houses Big Loud Bucks, based in large part on Kenny Chesney’s latest, ClearBox Rights (home to Joe Nichols) and Black River Entertainment (Billy Currington).…

THE PRERELEASE SECURITY PLAN around Taylor Swift’s 1989 was not a complete success — the album leaked three days before its Oct. 27 street date — but it may have been the most elaborate, at least for an album that more than a few people knew existed (see the gold standard in album security, aka Beyoncé). “I have a lot of maybe-/maybe-not-irrational fears of security invasion, wiretaps, people eavesdropping,” Swift told Jimmy Kimmel on Oct. 23, adding that for months the only copy of the album in existence was on her phone. At a surprise September listening party for approximately 20 fans at Swift’s home in Los Angeles, loud heavy metal music was blasted out of the dwelling’s windows in an effort to foil any supersonic microphones lurking nearby. Otherwise,…

BOLD-FACE NAMES In the keynote Q&A, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning film composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Gone Girl, The Social Network) will discuss their work in film. Gregg Alexander, who wrote the music for Begin Again (see story, left), will kick off the conference with a Q&A session. And composer Howard Shore will receive the lifetime achievement Maestro Award and discuss his 80-plus-film career (all Nov. 5). DEEP DIVES Case studies will examine the forthcoming remake of Annie (Nov. 6), and composer Mark Mothersbaugh and directorproducers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s films together (The Lego Movie) (Nov. 6). Oscar-winning composer Steven Price (Gravity) will talk about Fury and more (Nov. 5). CAREER OPPORTUNITIES Attendees will hear panel discussions and can take oneon-one meetings with some of the industry’s top…

AMID SPECULATION AND RUMORS OF CMJ MUSIC MARATHON’S declining reach, the conference and festival drew an impressive 1,300 bands for showcases at venues as large as Terminal 5 and as small as Radio Bushwick in Brooklyn. Though established acts like The Kills, Cold War Kids and shoegaze pioneer Slowdive slayed their respective headlining performances, baby bands still managed to steal the spotlight: Rising producer Tokimonsta kept the party going until 2 a.m., BJ the Chicago Kid lived up to his hype at NPR’s showcase, viral sensation Ryn Weaver charmed with her glittering kiss-off “OctaHate” — and then, of course, there was rapper Danny Brown’s intimate red-lit set for the Alternative Distribution Alliance’s boat party (and its 21st birthday bash). “We’re on a motherf—ing boat!” hyped Brown mid-set, as the crowd…

Where the city’s rising rap stars work, play and perform THE BASEMENT, 1245 GLENWOOD AVE. SE Don’t let the dive bar aesthetic fool you — this venue has hosted shows by Rich Homie Quan, Trinidad James and other local upstarts. “I’ve done clubs before,” says Kap G, “but nothing like The Basement — it’s crazy!”basementatl.com COLLEGE PARK CUSTOMS, 6435 CHURCH ST. RIVERDALE, GA Custom cars are a way of life in Atlanta hiphop culture, and this body shop keeps rappers like Quan riding right. “They always showed me love, even before I started rapping,” he says. collegeparkcustoms.com EROSOL, 467 EDGEWOOD AVE. SE ATL up-and-comers like RaRa and Key have made the upper level at Erosol, often referred to as Department Store, their go-to performance space and chill spot. “We run…

GBV Broke Up: Have A Beer Guided by Voices fans bereft over its September breakup will soon be able to drown their sorrows in a beer inspired by the 20th anniversary of the indie band’s classic 1994 album, Bee Thousand. On Nov. 17, Delaware microbrewer Dogfish Head will release Beer Thousand, which founder Sam Calagione, 45, describes as “the most rustically elegant malt liquor you could ever imagine.” Calagione says Bee Thousand was a “touchstone” for him when he was writing his business plan in 1994. GBV’s former leader Robert Pollard declined to comment, but Calagione says the rocker symbolically “added the hops to the test vats,” and that 1,000 cases of Beer Thousand in 750-milliliter bottles will contain a 10-inch vinyl record featuring 10 cuts from a never-bootlegged 1994…

“You can’t leave your phone unattended around my family cause they’ll tweet something like ‘I luv 2 f— animals.’ ” —JACK ANTONOFF The Fun and Bleachers singersongwriter-guitarist, on Twitter. “Everybody has a right to their own opinion — so why do I get in trouble for speaking mine?” —KANYE WEST The rapper, onstage at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. “Flight attendant looked at me and didn’t believe I was first class.” —MEGHAN TRAINOR The “All About That Bass” singer, joking about her overnight fame, on Twitter. “Justin Bieber acts ‘black-ish,’ but he doesn’t get shot by the police. He gets a police escort home.” —LAURENCE FISHBURNE The actor, explaining the title of Black-ish, the new ABC sitcom he stars in, on The View. “If you want to…

John Legend: Scruff “This one- to two-day shadow is relaxed, but John could still put on a crisp white shirt and do a formal interview,” says Acord, who notes that men with oblong faces wear this look best. Once you’ve shaved, massage a conditioning oil or wax into the skin so it stays moisturized and blemish-free.” 1 TOM FORD conditioning beard oil, $50; tomford.com. 2 MR. NATTY Mr. Willie Mack’s all-over wax, $45; mrnatty.com. Lenny Kravitz: Medium “Even though Lenny’s look is characterized by defined lines, it also looks natural,” Acord says of the style best-suited for men with rounder face shapes. “To prevent the lines of the beard from looking too sharp, opt for tweezers instead of a razor to tackle stray hairs.” 3 V76 clean shave hydrating gel…

1) “MELTDOWN”Stromae (featuring Lorde, Pusha T, Q-Tip, Haim) 2) “DEAD AIR”Chvrches 3) “SCREAM MY NAME”Tove Lo 4) “KINGDOM”Charli XCX (featuring Simon Le Bon) 5) “TRACK 5”various artists 6) “LOST SOULS”Raury 7) “YELLOW FLICKER BEAT”Lorde 8) “THE LEAP”Tinashe 9) “PLAN THE ESCAPE”Bat for Lashes 10) “ORIGINAL BEAST”Grace Jones 11) “FLICKER” (KANYE WEST REWORK)Lorde 12) “ANIMAL”XOV 13) “THIS IS NOT A GAME”The Chemical Brothers (featuring Miguel) 14) “LADDER SONG”Lorde THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS The British duo of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons have redefined and challenged electronic music’s boundaries since debuting with 1995’s Exit Planet Dust. They last scored the 2012 film Hannah. GRACE JONES An iconic model and musician, the Grammy winner has dabbled in funk, R&B and disco with 10 albums — most recently 2008’s Hurricane — during the course of…

THE NINE INCH NAILS FRONTMAN USED TO BE A GOTH-NOISE PROVOCATEUR WITH TORTURE-PORN MUSIC VIDEOS AND A DEEP, LOUD HATRED FOR THE MAJOR-LABEL COMPLEX. NOW, AT 49, HE’S A MARRIED FATHER WITH AN OSCAR-WINNING DAVID FINCHER COLLABORATION, A TOP-SECRET BEATS PROJECT AND, LEAST SUBVERSIVE OF ALL, A ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME NOMINATION. WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED THE ANGRY GUY IN THE S&M MASK WOULD BE THE INDUSTRY’S NEW THOUGHT LEADER? N EXT MAY, TRENT REZNOR TURNS 50. “IT’S WITH SOME SENSE OF DREAD,” HE SAYS DRYLY. “I saw something on TV, ‘If you’re age 50 to 74, apply now...’ — I’m like, ‘F—, I’m in that?’ ” As he hits the half-century mark, Reznor may have more than his birthday to celebrate: There’s a good chance Nine Inch…

DIVADOM CAN OFTEN BE A COMPETITIVE sport. That’s one reason covers have always been an essential part of Mariah, Celine and company’s catalogs — what better way to showcase your voice than to conquer someone else’s hit song? And few have done that better than Aretha Franklin, arguably the greatest diva of them all, whose covers frequently make the source material an afterthought. (Some are still unaware, for example, that her signature hit, “Respect,” was originally recorded by Otis Redding.) With Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, her 38th studio album, the 72-year-old soul legend tips her hat to her power-voiced peers, and often beats them at their own game. Not a note goes to waste on the LP, which features stylized covers of hits popularized by Dinah Washington,…

PRODUCERS Flight Facilities LABEL Glassnote RELEASE DATE Oct. 27 DURING THE PAST FEW YEARS, AUSTRALIA has been a hotbed of innovative electronic acts such as Flume, Panama and Flight Facilities. While these producer-DJs can cook a brostepworthy beat, they’re more concerned with lush tracks that work just as well in a hotel lobby as a club; their post-EDM sounds have been quietly wooing audiences tiring of the drop. To that end, Flight Facilities’ debut LP, Down to Earth, sees the Sydney-based production duo (Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell) abandoning dance’s self-serious cool and embracing its less festival-friendly side. Though guest stars add leverage — Reggie Watts sings over funked-up pedals on “Sunshine,” Kylie Minogue owns an a cappella of the sassy “Crave You,” Bishop Nehru deadpans over retro-rap “Why Do…

THE DIVIDE IN DANCE MUSIC BETWEEN mainstream and underground is growing by the day, but some artists refuse to pick sides. Dillon Francis, EDM’s resident funnyman, is one of them. When the Los Angeles producer, 27, signed to Columbia Records in the spring after releasing one-offs on tastemaking indies like Skrillex’s OWSLA, he faced a conundrum: Make a street-cred-worthy moombahton album for his rabid fans, or aim for pop glory and risk alienating them? It seems Francis couldn’t decide, as his debut LP, Money Sucks, Friends Rule, is both. It’s fitting, then, that the project has a few contradictions, with sugary big-room bangers (“We Are Impossible” featuring The Presets) alongside more sophisticated club fare (“Set Me Free”). His collaborators play all sides of all fences, from rapper Twista to Panic…

After a fruitful recording session in Memphis, the King of Rock and Roll notched his seventh No. 1 on the chart on Nov. 1, 1969 with “Suspicious Minds” IN THE WAKE OF THE SUCCESS OF Elvis Presley’s December 1968 NBC TV special, Elvis — often referred to as the ’68 Comeback Special — the 34-year-old singer headed into the recording studio in January 1969 to build on the momentum. Among the cuts Presley laid down at Memphis’ American Sound Studio was his seventh and final No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, “Suspicious Minds.” (A number of his hits, such as “Hound Dog,” predate the launch of the chart in 1958.) “This is where it all started for me,” Presley told Billboard during his only in-studio interview after signing…

IMAGINE THE AFFABLE Fresh Air host Terry Gross ensnared in a lurid sex scandal and you’d have a sense of the disbelief in Canada over the firing of Jian Ghomeshi. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation dismissed the popular radio host from his daily talk show Q after receiving unspecified “information” about his private life. Revealed to be accusations by a former girlfriend that Ghomeshi was physically violent, the British-born, Canadaraised 47-year-old admitted in a Facebook post that he had a taste for “rough sex ... role-play, dominance and submission” with consenting partners. By Oct. 30, eight women had come forward with detailed and similar allegations of sexual assault and harassment by Ghomeshi. Only Trailer Park Boys actress Lucy DeCoutere was named. (None of the accusers have filed charges as of press…

Under new management after 33 years, New York’s version of South by Southwest bested its 2013 numbers — but who among the 1,446 bands can maintain momentum? MIXED CROWDS Though CMJ Music Marathon CEO Adam Klein said the conference’s metrics topped 2013’s, and hyped bands packed smaller rooms like Williamsburg’s Converse Rubber Tracks, many venues saw scant turnout —Penn Badgley’s band, Mothxr, played to only 50 at Brooklyn Bowl. AUSSIE TAKEOVER From slackrocker Courtney Barnett to rising electro-pop singer George Maple, 2014 experienced a whopping 729 percent increase in the number of Australian bands at CMJ since 2009, according to Sounds Australia, the government organization that funds artists. BUZZ BAND Though industry folk weren’t stoked on much, Aussie rock act DMA’ scored Twitter accolades and ignited a reported frenzy of…

IT’S NO EXAGGERATION TO SAY THAT THE future of digital music in the United States — or at least a big part of it — rides on the outcome of the webcasting royalty-rate proceedings now underway. The royalties that services like Pandora and iHeartRadio pay to record labels from 2016 through 2020 will not be determined until December 2015, but tens of millions of dollars, and possibly more, are at stake. Considering that these royalties amounted to $590 million in 2013, any movement will have big consequences. The stakeholders spend accordingly: iHeartMedia and the National Association of Broadcasters paid former eMusic CEO David Pakman, a partner at venture capital firm Venrock, $650 an hour for his 19-page testimony that argues high royalties inhibit webcasting. Not surprisingly, the rates proposed by…

IN THE 15 YEARS SINCE GREGG ALEXANDER’S run on the Billboard Hot 100 with New Radicals’ ebullient pop gem “You Get What You Give” — which peaked at No. 36 but hung on for 20 weeks — his life has been one of privacy. Having forsaken live performances and recording under his own name, he has worked as a songwriter and producer, using aliases on occasion and scoring a major hit with “The Game of Love,” the 2002 Santana-Michelle Branch recording that earned Alexander a Grammy. His return to the limelight has come through his score and songs for the film Begin Again, about a young singer-songwriter (Keira Knightley), recently separated from her boyfriend-partner (Adam Levine), who is discovered by a struggling record executive (Mark Ruffalo). “Lost Stars,” the song…

“Y’ALL JUST HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT now in all actuality,” an uncharacteristically euphoric Kanye West exclaimed to the crowd during his set at the second annual Life Is Beautiful festival. And with 70 electrifying performances during the course of three days and across four stages, the 90,000 attendees and musicians ranging from DJ Mustard to Little Dragon were equally blissed out. “It had a vibe and sense of community that surpassed most festivals,” Vintage Trouble’s Ty Taylor told Billboard. “Musicians watched each other’s performances, made neon connections with fans and laughed like old friends.” Throughout the weekend — which featured vendor booths with food from renowned chefs — budding indie acts Vacationer, Milky Chance, St. Lucia and Misterwives held their own alongside festival mainstays Lionel Richie,…

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN one of the best rock albums of the year arrives and only Australia notices? That has been the case for The Preatures, a Sydney quintet whose debut, Blue Planet Eyes, bowed at No. 4 on the Australian album chart. In America, the LP was a digital-only release (Sept. 30, Harvest) and thus far has failed to crack the Billboard 200 (CD and vinyl editions are due out Nov. 25). But the album, co-produced by Spoon’s Jim Eno, is a pop-rock tour de force, and with the band opening for Pink and The Rolling Stones, it’s doubtful it will stay secret for long. Singerkeyboardist Isabella Manfredi, 25, and guitarist Jack Moffitt, 24, explain a few things about The Preatures before they take on the world. The band has…

Tyler, the Creator knows how to give back to fans. For his crew Odd Future‘ third annual Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival at Los Angeles’ The Park at L.A. Coliseum on Nov. 8, the rapper has enlisted an eye-popping roster including Pharrell Williams, Rick Ross and Mac Miller. He’s also offering the crowd, which has swelled from 2,000 to almost 20,000 since its 2012 debut, $150-to-$250 prize packages featuring swag from his Golf Wang clothing line as well as commemorative Odd Future photo books and vinyl. The 23-year-old, who also oversaw the recently wrapped third season of Odd Future’s Adult Swim show, Loiter Squad, explains why this year’s carnival is the sickest one of all. Why do you call Camp Flog Gnaw a carnival instead of a festival? We don’t call…

FROM San Jose, Calif. AGE 20 ORIGIN A child actress with appearances on My Wife and Kids and That’s So Raven, Jasmine Villegas signed with Damon Dash at age 12 before inking a deal with Sony, and then Interscope in 2013. “I was signed three times and was really discouraged throughout a lot of it,” she says. “If something goes wrong, you feel like everything’s going to go wrong. There are a lot of everyday struggles.” BIG BREAK Appearing as the object of Justin Bieber’s unrequited love in the 2010 video for his hit “Baby” helped Villegas build a social media presence that now stands at 1.7 million Twitter followers. CO-SIGN Her single “That’s Me Right There” reached No. 29 on the Billboard/Twitter Top Tracks chart and No. 41 on…

Prince The R&B master singersongwriter accents his barely there ’stache with a lower lipgrazing soul patch. Eugene Hutz Gogol Bordello’s frontman is known equally for his energetic stage presence and his umbrella-shaped facial hair. Dev Hynes The essential elements of the songwriter’s Blood Orange look? Dreads, hat and a medium-dense mustache. David Crosby His gray whiskers are fashioned in a style called the walrus — a look also worn by Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. Lionel Richie Richie’s defined, perfectly trimmed mustache has been a signature since he began with the Commodores.…

Bearded Dragons She’s planning to adopt one of these worm-eating lizards, which are native to Australia and grow to 24 inches long. Drama Kids Her high-school social circle included the arty crowd — “the kids getting kicked out because they’re smoking weed.” The Beach “I love just being at home with my family and cooking on the beach,” she says about New Zealand. Ouija Boards Growing up, the singer spent long nights with her friends playing with spirit boards. Robert Mapplethorpe Lorde’s art education began with the legendary photographer’s work, courtesy of her mother.…

Whatever you think of director Peter Jackson’s decision to pump up J.R.R. Tolkien’s table-setting novel The Hobbit into a trio of films to rival the more naturally epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, the indisputably good news is that when the final movie, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, is released in December, the world will have several more hours of Howard Shore’s Middle Earth music to enjoy. Across the first five films, Shore’s sweeping, luscious, sometimes otherworldly scores — more than 21 hours of music in total — have earned him three Oscars, one for The Fellowship of the Ring (score) and two for The Return of the King (score and song). Asked recently how he felt about his imminent departure from Middle Earth — relief, sadness, something…

MEGHAN TRAINOR “LIPS ARE MOVIN’ ” EPIC Trainor has just one hit to her name thus far, and on her “All About That Bass” follow-up, she can’t help but work a sly self-reference into its snappy chorus. “I gave you bass/You gave me sweet talk,” she sings in a Southern-inflected patois over sax bleats, helping solidify her as the self-proclaimed queen of her own genre, “shewop.” —ANDREW HAMPP FLO RIDA FEATURING SAGE THE GEMINI AND LOOKAS “G.D.F.R.” ATLANTIC Flo Rida is hardly an innovative rapper, but he’s a practiced chart-topper thanks to savvy trend-spotting and an ear for underappreciated talent. On his latest, listeners get yet another horn sample and a killer hook from Sage the Gemini. Knock Flo’s lyrical skills if you must, but he knows his way around…

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED rock bios of the year, Billy Joel comes with a backstory almost as complicated as the 65-year-old hitmaker’s life. Joel originally brought in Fred Schruers, a respected Rolling Stone alum, to co-author a memoir with him, for which the singer got a reported $3 million advance. In March 2011, with publication just weeks away, Joel bailed, saying he was “not all that interested in talking about the past.” Speculation about the reasons ran rampant in the press. Some said it was because the memoir was too candid; others said it was not candid enough. But, in a surprising twist, Joel allowed Schruers to write a book about him using the existing research. (Celebrity co-authors generally sign contracts preventing them from disclosing what they learn in…

WHEN GUITARISTS DEREK TRUCKS AND WARREN Haynes announced in January they would no longer perform with The Allman Brothers Band after this year, it wasn’t clear what that meant. This iteration of the group had been together almost 15 years, longer than any other since the band’s 1969 formation. Original members Gregg Allman, Jaimoe and Butch Trucks (Derek’s uncle) would have to either add new members and forge on, as they had done before, or stop playing as the Allman Brothers. For months, Butch and Allman sent mixed messages, as fans debated what could, should and would happen. In June, the end of an era finally came into view: The band announced it would play its last concerts with a six-show run at New York’s Beacon Theatre, the inevitable conclusion…