Link - PAGE 55

Country Radio Quickly Removing Morgan Wallen From Playlists After Racial Slur

Jason Tate

Morgan Wallen, who has had the number one album in the country the past few weeks, is being removed from country radio and various high-profile playlists after using a racial slur over the weekend.

Said one figure in country radio who did not want to comment for attribution: “Morgan Wallen appears in virtually every half-hour of music across 4000 stations across America right now. How’d you like to get that message at midnight, that you have to take him out of the music blocks you already set up for Wednesday? If anybody has other songs they’ve been wanting to hear in the morning, they may get to hear them tomorrow.”

DSPs also appeared to be taking action. As of late Tuesday night, Wallen, who has been called the biggest out-of-the-box streaming success in country music history, did not appear anywhere among the dozens of photos or track listings or playlists on the home page of Apple Music Country, where observers said he had been featured earlier in the day. And his songs were no longer anywhere to be seen in Spotify’s list of 50 top Hot Country songs.

Morgan Wallen Tops the Charts (Again)

Jason Tate

Morgan Wallen still has the number one album in the country:

Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album stays put at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a third straight week, becoming the first country album to spend three weeks atop the list in eight years. The set earned 130,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 28 (down 18%), according to MRC Data.

Evan Rachel Wood and Other Women Make Allegations of Abuse Against Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson
Jason Tate

Vanity Fair:

“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wood wrote. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”

In a show of solidarity, at least four other women posted their own allegations against Manson, detailing harrowing experiences that they claim included sexual assault, psychological abuse, and/or various forms of coercion, violence, and intimidation. Manson has denied similar allegations in the past. His representatives were not immediately available for a comment, but his team has “categorically denied” similar accusations in the past. V.F. will update this breaking news as the story develops.

Read More “Evan Rachel Wood and Other Women Make Allegations of Abuse Against Marilyn Manson”

New Spotify Patent Involves Monitoring Users’ Speech to Recommend Music

Jason Tate

Pitchfork:

Spotify has been granted a patent with technology that aims to use recordings of users’ speech and background noise to determine what kind of music to curate and recommend to them, Music Business Worldwide reports. The company filed for the patent in 2018; it was approved on January 12, 2021.

The patent outlines potential uses of technology that involves the extraction of “intonation, stress, rhythm, and the likes of units of speech” from the user’s voice. The tech could also use speech recognition to identify metadata points such as emotional state, gender, age, accent, and even environment—i.e., whether someone is alone, or with other people—based on audio recording.

I’m good, thanks.

HAIM to Score New Netflix Musical

HAIM
Jason Tate

HAIM will be scoring the upcoming Netflix animated musical, The Witch Boy.

Hailing from the Oscar-nominated Adam and Dog director and based on Molly Knox Osterag’s New York Times bestselling novel series of the same name, The Witch Boytakes place in a secret, magical community where girls are born to be witches and boys grow into shapeshifters. The Lee’s protagonist, Aster, is surprised to discover his emerging witch powers. But when a mysterious force endangers his world, he must embark on a journey to learn the truth behind himself, his powers and all the magic around him.

Foo Fighters Launch SiriusXM Station

Foo Fighters
Jason Tate

Foo Fighters have teamed up with SiriusXM for the launch of a limited-run station:

The channel features a new, exclusive live concert performance, as well as unrivaled programming and special commentary from Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, and Rami Jaffee, beginning February 3 at 12pm ET on Channel 105.

To coincide with the release of the band’s 10th studio album, Medicine At Midnight, Foo Fighters Radio will debut an exclusive performance from the band, Foo Fighters LIVE from the SiriusXM Garage in Los Angeles, on February 5 at 5pm ET and PT.

Morgan Wallen Tops the Charts (Again)

Jason Tate

Morgan Wallen still has the top album in the country this week:

Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album spends a second straight week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, earning 159,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 21 (down 40%), according to MRC Data. The album arrived atop the list a week ago with 265,000 units.

Morgan Wallen Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

Morgan Wallen has the number one album in the country this week:

Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in record-setting fashion, as it garners the largest streaming week ever for a country album. The 30-song album — Wallen’s first leader — further logs the largest overall week, by units earned, for a country set in over two years.

Taylor Swift Tops the Charts, Again

Taylor Swift
Jason Tate

Taylor Swift once again has the number one album in the country:

As Taylor Swift’s Evermore returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Jan. 16) for a third nonconsecutive week (up from No. 2 a week ago), the superstar now has a cumulative 51 weeks at No. 1 across all eight of her chart-toping albums. That ties Michael Jackson for the fourth-most weeks at No. 1. The two superstars only trail The Beatles (a record 132 weeks), Elvis Presley (67) and Garth Brooks (52).

The Menzingers Start Patreon

The Menzingers
Jason Tate

The Menzingers have launched a Patreon:

What a hell of a time to be alive. With our best-laid plans smashed to bits and an entire album cycle of touring erased from the calendar, we needed to find new ways to keep this operation runnin’. Thus “From Exile,” a DIY self-recorded revisioning of “Hello Exile,” was born. It was an incredible learning experience and a beautiful way for the four of us to connect albeit from a distance.

We’re at it again, this time launching a Patreon and calling it The Regulars Club. For many people, this was a year of self-reflection and prioritization. We are no exception. We’re taking a deep dive. This is a way for us to stay connected to you guys, to each other, to our music, and to the journey that got us here. There are countless stories we’ve yet to tell. We’ll be telling them here. We’re writing, filming, recording, drawing, and shaping the whole damn thing ourselves.

The Grammys Postponed

Grammys
Jason Tate

Rolling Stone:

“The deteriorating COVID situation in Los Angeles, with hospital services being overwhelmed, ICUs having reached capacity, and new guidance from state and local governments have all led us to conclude that postponing our show was the right thing to do,” the Recording Academy and CBS, the network broadcasting the show, said in a statement. “Nothing is more important than the health and safety of those in our music community and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly on producing the show. We want to thank all of the talented artists, the staff, our vendors and especially this year’s nominees for their understanding, patience and willingness to work with us as we navigate these unprecedented times.”

Playboi Carti Tops the Charts

Jason Tate

Playboi Carti has the number one album in the country this week.

Playboi Carti lands his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as his Christmas Day release Whole Lotta Red debuts atop the tally. The rapper’s second studio album starts with 100,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 31, 2020, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.

Ticketmaster Will Pay $10 Million for Hacking Rival Ticket Seller

Ticketmaster
Jason Tate

The Verge:

Ticketmaster has agreed to pay $10 million for breaking into a competitors’ network. The company and its parent Live Nation admitted to hiring a former employee from rival ticket seller CrowdSurge, then using his knowledge — including old usernames and passwords — to learn CrowdSurge’s inner workings and “cut [the company] off at the knees.”

“Ticketmaster employees repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor’s computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence,” said acting US attorney Seth DuCharme. “Further, Ticketmaster’s employees brazenly held a division-wide ‘summit’ at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company’s computers.”