The AI music startup, Suno, has raised an additional $400 million:
Suno Inc., a startup that enables people to make music using artificial intelligence, has raised $400 million at a valuation of $5.4 billion.
Suno Now Valued at $5.4 Billion
Amy Lee Talks New Album
Amy Lee of Evanescense sat down with Loudwire:
”I feel like we’re in a moment where words are really important and every single line is an opportunity, it’s a chance to say something that’s going to impact somebody,” she shares. “Hopefully in a positive way, make them feel something, whether it’s feeling understood or not alone in something or just they’re not alone in the craziness of everything going on in the world right now. It’s fucked up and it feels like all of our control is being ripped away.”
Death Cab for Cutie Talks With Rolling Stone
Death Cab for Cutie talked with Rolling Stone:
I Built You a Tower will be released under ANTI Records, Epitaph’s sister label. For Death Cab, the return to an indie is a homecoming of sorts. “It felt so refreshing to be back in a room with people that were culturally of our world,” Gibbard says, recalling the first meeting with Epitaph owner Brett Gurewitz and former head of A&R Alison Crutchfield. “I can really count on one hand in the 20 years at Atlantic the number of people that we felt we had some true similar musical vocabulary” he adds, “It feels like we’ve landed back in a place that we feel very comfortable at.”
Rare the Beatles Photos From Final Concert
Rolling Stone have shared thirteen rare and unseen photos from The Beatles final concert:
The Beatles saga can be neatly divided into two halves: everything that came before their concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on Aug. 29, 1966, and everything that came after. That momentous event marked the final time they played a proper concert following years of relentless road work that greatly limited the number of hours they could spend in recording studios. In the aftermath, they were able to camp out at Abbey Road and carefully craft masterpieces like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Bandwithout a clock ticking towards their next show.
The All-American Rejects Talk With Rock Sound
The All-American Rejects talked with Rock Sound:
Well for starters, there was no big budget from a record label, so we recorded and produced the album ourselves in our individual creative spaces – Tyson [Ritter, frontman] in Tulsa, Scott [Chesak, former keyboard player] in Austin, and me in my studio in Nashville. Even though we were limited because of budget and geography, it was freeing to create something without the outside voices of A&R or anyone else for that matter. No pressure to write another ‘Gives You Hell’ or ‘Move Along’. We got to make the record that we wanted to make – as that band, but from where we are in our lives now.
Last.fm’s Independence Day
Last.fm has regained their independence:
Today, Last.fm begins a new chapter as an independent company. Ownership has changed, but the product you use every day has not. Your account, your listening history, and your data remain exactly where they are. The team building Last.fm is the same. The service continues as normal.
MUNA Talk With Rolling Stone
MUNA talked with Rolling Stone about their latest album:
McPherson: You can’t help but react against what you’ve previously worked on, whether you’ve had success or not. With “Silk,” there of course is fear. This has been happening to us since the beginning of our career. We’re always like, “What if this is the best moment of our lives and then everything else after this sucks?” Since we toured with Harry Styles, we were like, “What if this is the peak?” You never know. We have to accept that, but what we are in control of is making music that we think is good. It would have been a very fear-based scarcity mentality thing to do to try to recreate “Silk Chiffon” another 11 times and see which one sticks.
Linda Perry Talks About Not Producing Green Day
Linda Perry called out Green Day in a new interview for dropping her as the producer of the follow up to American Idiot.
When asked if there was any truth to that, Perry said the band had indeed reached out and asked her to produce their next record. “I had a full calendar and cancelled six months of work to do it,” she recalled. “I met with Billie Joe [Armstrong], and we talked for three hours […] Like every artist, I think he had got to a point where you feel like I have nothing to say and need help – there’s a therapy aspect to producing too.”
“Then Courtney blabbed her mouth that I was producing. Suddenly they started getting backlash from their fans, upset they were ‘bringing in Linda Perry, who produced Pink and Christina Aguilera’.
“And then those guys just stopped calling me,” Perry continued. “I would reach out to figure out what was going on. Nobody called. I lost six months of scheduled work. That was fucked-up – all because Billie-Joe’s a little pussy and got all this backlash from his fans and didn’t like it.”
Spotify Announces New Partnerships
Spotify has made a bunch of new announcements. They’ve partnered with Live Nation:
Spotify said that starting in the U.S. this summer, select artists will be able to use Reserved to set aside tickets for fans on the platform. The platform has partnered with Live Nation on the program as part of a multiyear agreement. The platform will use streams, shares and other types of activity to “identify an artist’s most dedicated fans and hold two tour tickets for them.”
And they have a new agreement with UMG to let users create AI covers and remixes:
[W]ill enable Spotify to launch a new tool allowing fans to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters.
The tool will be powered by generative AI technology that the announcement states “will open up additional revenue streams and new ways to drive discovery.”
Jack Antonoff Talks With Rolling Stone
Jack Antonoff talked with Rolling Stone about the upcoming Bleachers album:
While making Everyone for Ten Minutes, Antonoff was also working on Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend. And though he often taps the members of Bleachers to play on his other projects, making them both band and Wrecking Crew, he notes that “there’s almost zero sonic crossover” between his own records and those he’s producing for others. The sounds and tones are generally not what inspire him, anyway.
“If I’m in a room with Kendrick… I think, ‘Oh, the way he’s telling the story about his past is so vivid. I’ve been trying to do a story about my past.’ Or the way Sabrina can vacillate between the most brilliant, sad poetry and comedy — which are really linked — I was like, ‘Maybe there’s a moment I could put a wink in.’ It’s the broad strokes of someone’s honesty or artistry.”
The All-American Rejects Breakdown ‘Sandbox’
The All-American Rejects talked with Alt Press about all the songs on their new album:
I wrote that hook for the Eels. E was trying to finish his record, and he was like, “Do you have any more songs?” I said no, but I was driving my son to school that morning, and right when I dropped him off, I heard the chorus for “Get This,” and [it] just came out. It was going fast, so I got home, and in 10 minutes, it was done. I sent it to him, and he was like, “I don’t think I can pull that off.” And I was like, “Good, because I want it.” That song, in the spirit of this record, was just pure fun. I showed Nick the demo, and he loved it. It came together the fastest out of all the songs. Super easy to put together. The good ones are easy. Sometimes everything about a song like that is just easy. It’s where we have always rung the bell as a band, just a fun song. It doesn’t mean anyone any harm.
Daisy Grenade Talk New EP
Daisy Grenade talked with Rock Sound about their new EP:
I think when we started this band, we didn’t know really what we wanted, or what we wanted it to feel like or sound like, and we were just kind of open to trying everything. We knew where our influences were coming from, but we didn’t know what felt like the best way to express that, and as we’ve grown and changed, we’re closer to what we want. Some of these songs we’ve been sitting on for two plus, almost three years, and I think it was just time that we put our foot down and say this is what we are going to do. Our sound is very eclectic because it comes from a million different places, and we don’t necessarily feel like we fit in one genre, but the musical landscape we’re in right now is so genre-less. And regardless, we don’t really give a fuck what label people put on this. We want to put out the songs we want to put out.
Jack Antonoff Slams AI Music
Jack Antonoff has shared some thoughts on AI music:
You don’t have to write music, you don’t have to record it and you don’t have to bring out the band and play it. And yet for us, the idea of optimizing what we do is a complete miss of the entire point of what compels us in the first place. We (myself, the band and everyone I know, frankly) have never been looking for this work to become quicker or easier. We were never frustrated by the randomness and magic it takes. We do it for that exact reason – and without the process itself ::: nothingness.
Dua Lip Sues Samsung
Dua Lipa is suing Samsung for using her image to sell TVs:
The lawsuit includes an image of what it says is the infringing television box. On the box is a photograph of Lipa backstage at Austin City Limits in 2024, which the complaint said is a copyrighted image owned by the singer.
Lipa asserts Samsung has refused to stop using her image despite repeated demands. The electronics company “has been dismissive and callous” to her requests, according to the complaint.
Red Hot Chili Peppers Sell Music Catalog
Red Hot Chili Peppers have sold their music catalog:
The Red Hot Chili Peppers has sold its recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group (WMG) for more than $300 million, a source confirms with Billboard. The company purchased the catalog via its $1.2 billion joint venture with Bain Capital, which is aimed at acquiring both recorded music and publishing rights.