Jason Aldean Sells Catalog to Spirit Music in $100 Million Deal

Tom Hanks made one bride’s big day even better.  The Oscar winner, 65, joined in on a bridal party's photo shoot outside of the Fairmont Hotel in Pittsburgh on Saturday.  Grace Gwaltney, the bride, revealed she was "shocked" to see the "Forrest Gump" star.  Tom Hanks joined a bridal party during their photo shoot outside of the Fairmont Hotel in Pittsburgh on Saturday.  (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage) Gwaltney told KCRA, "He was like, 'Hey! I'm Tom Hanks. I would love to get a photo with you,' and I immediately froze and was just looking around. I didn't know what to do." The bride’s wedding photographer, Rachel Rowland, also detailed the encounter to KCRA.  "We all lost it," Rowland said.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd has announced dates for his “After Hours Til Dawn” stadium tour, which launches in his hometown of Toronto on July 8 and heads across North America before wrapping in Los Angeles on Sept. 2 and then moving overseas.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorASCAP Experience, the performing rights organizations annual conference for songwriters, composers and creators, returns virtually this month. It kicks off on Tuesday (March 8) with an International Women’s Day panel featuring three of the industry’s leading composers and songwriters.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAmazon Music has announced that Phylicia Fant has joined the company as head of music industry partnerships, a newly created role. According to the announcement, she will identify and oversee strategic music partnerships and identify cross-entertainment campaigns for Amazon Music, She will be based in the company’s Culver City, Calif.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe “chopped and screwed” sound has become such a staple of hip-hop that most fans probably don’t even wonder where the slowed-down, stop-start sonic approach came from — and thus, the late DJ Screw, a.k.a. Houston native Robert Earl Davis Jr., is one of the truly unsung heroes of the genre.During the 1990s, he developed the revolutionary mixing technique from his Houston home, adding new rhythms to instrumental tracks, slowing them down and bringing in local rappers to freestyle over the tracks.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJay-Z and Kanye West were the highest-earning hip-hop acts of 2021, according to a list compiled by former longtime Forbes editor Zack O’Malley Greenberg on Tuesday.Jay topped the list with $470 million, after selling portions of his Tidal streaming service and Armand de Brignac champagne, bringing his net worth to $1.5 billion. Fellow billionaire Ye was second with $250 million for the year, almost entirely from his Yeezy footwear empire.While the list is filled with other perennials like Diddy and Drake — who  there were some surprises. Rapper Tech N9ne is No.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCity of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S., will honor Republic Records founders Monte and Avery Lipman (pictured above, R-L) at its 2022 Spirit of Life Gala in the fall. The prestigious award will be presented to them at a gala dinner — the first Spirit of Life Gala since 2019.According to the announcement, the Spirit of Life Award is City of Hope’s most prestigious honor and is presented to an esteemed community of industry leaders around the world who have made a significant commitment to improving the lives of others through the advancement of research and clinical innovation and the delivery of personalized, compassionate care.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMissy Elliott, Wizkid, Ozuna, Kali Uchis, Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, Jhené Aiko and many more will perform at a new festival in New York called LetsGetFr.ee, taking place at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on August 20-21, with a special opening night gala on the 19 th.The festival, which also features Jorja Smith, Yendry, El Alfa, Ferg, Lido Pimienta, Flatbush Zombies, Tems, ​​Bomba Estéreo, Major Lazer Sound System and many more, is presented by Afropunk festival founder Matthew Morgan and longtime partner Jocelyn Cooper in partnership with global creative agency Anomaly.The full lineup appears below.According to the announcement, the festival is “the largest diversity-focused, purpose-driven music experience in the U.S. Its mission is to close the equity gap for Black, Brown, Asian, and other underrepresented people in the entertainment industry, with the aim of achieving a diversified workforce across all levels in the industry by 2030.” The festival pledges that it will only work with brands and companies who commit to long-term systemic change.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCharli XCX has dropped the latest single from her forthcoming album “Crash,” just days before her appearance on “Saturday Night Live” (which was originally scheduled for December but postponed due to omicron) and will perform the song on the show.According to the announcement, the song, which is accompanied by a video directed by Imogene Strauss and Luke Orlando, is one of the first Charli wrote for the album. The disco-fied song is a collaboration with the brother team of Justin and Jeremiah Raisen (a.k.a.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPerforming-rights organization ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers,  announced record-setting financial results for 2021, notably a record-high revenue of $1.335 billion.Increases in collections from the audio streaming and audio-visual sectors pushed ASCAP’s domestic revenue to $1.011 billion in 2021, up 4.4%, an increase of $42.5 million over 2020. This was the first year that ASCAP domestic revenues from U.S.-licensed performances surpassed $1 billion.According to the announcement, since ASCAP launched its strategic growth plan in 2015, revenues have hit a 5% compound annual growth rate and ASCAP members have benefited from a 6% compound annual growth rate in overall distributions, and an 8% compound annual growth rate in domestic distributions.  ASCAP’s identification, matching and processing of trillions of musical performances drove record-setting distributions that exceeded $1 billion for the fifth year in a row and increased $41 million over the previous year, for a total of $1.254 billion available for distribution to its more than 850,000 songwriter, composer and publisher members in 2021.Total monies available for domestic distributions of licensed and administered performances amounted to $912.6 million, a 2.4% increase of $22 million over 2020. A solid domestic performance helped to offset the challenges in foreign revenues, due to the ongoing global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the announcement continues. Revenue from foreign societies in 2021 totaled $323.5 million, down 9.7% from 2020 due largely to business closures and the lack of vaccinations.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAvril Lavigne, Maren Morris, Alicia Keys and other artists will appear in “iHeartRadio SeeHer Hear Her: Celebrating Women Who Make Music and Culture,” a celebration on the radio network taking place on International Women’s Day on March 8.The event will highlight successful and influential artists in music during a live one-hour special that will stream on iHeartRadio’s YouTube and Facebook pages on March 8 at 8 p.m. ET (available on demand through March 14).iHeartMedia is the largest radio network in the U.S.

APPOINTMENTSGed Doherty is stepping down as Chair of UK record industry trade body BPI after seven years in the role, in order to focus on his film company Raindog Films. “I have loved every minute of working with the BPI and its members and its amazing team led by Geoff Taylor”, he says.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorGreen Day have canceled their concert scheduled for May 29 at Spartak Stadium in Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the band announced on Sunday.“With heavy hearts, in light of current events we feel it is necessary to cancel our upcoming show in Moscow at Spartak Stadium,” the band said in a statement to Variety. “We are aware that this moment is not about stadium rock shows, it’s much bigger than that.  But we also know that rock and roll is forever and we feel confident there will be a time and a place for us to return in the future.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorWhile it’s hardly top of mind given the tragedy of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pop act AJR have canceled their upcoming concert date in the country, scheduled for October.“We are sad to announce that we will be cancelling our upcoming show in Russia,” the band wrote on social media. “Thank you to our Russian fans who oppose their country’s unprovoked and criminal behavior.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe transition from bedroom pop to one of New York’s biggest stages is not an easy one — the intimate sound and emotions of the loosely defined style are almost the polar opposite of the big gestures and loud volume it takes to fill a major venue. Yet two of the genre’s most popular (and youngest) artists, Clairo and Arlo Parks, did it with ease Thursday night before an impressively full crowd at New York’s historic, 6,000-capacity Radio City Music Hall.Parks, 21 — who is nominated for two 2022 Grammys — is already a major star in her native England and is the more animated performer of the two, although Thursday’s show represented a big step up from her last area performance (at the 650-capacity Music Hall of Williamsburg in September).

DEALSSpirit Music Group has acquired a big old stake in the recording royalties – including from those always fun neighbouring rights – of country musician Jason Aldean. “It’s cool that a company like Spirit, that’s been around so long, has taken on my music catalogue”, says Aldean. “It’s something really important to me, so I’m glad it’ll be looked after”.Sony Music Publishing Scandinavia has announced a partnership with Lateral Management’s publishing arm Vertical Rights.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn celebration of Daft Punk’s 25th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut album, “Homework” comes the surprise release of “Homework Digital Deluxe.”  The physical boxed set arrives in April; the full track list appears below.It will be previewed with an unreleased, exclusive and time-limited piece of content showing on 2/22 at 2:22pm PST: a one-off livestream of the “Twitch of the Mayan 97” concert that you can hear here. The concert was filmed at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles on December 17, 1997, during the “Daftendirektour,” the duo’s first concert tour.The news comes exactly one year after the vastly influential duo announced their split.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDua Lipa, My Chemical Romance, Green Day and Halsey will headline the 2022 Firefly festival, which returns to Delaware’s Woodlands Sept. 22-25.Presale for the festival, which is presented in conjunction with AEG Presents, begins Friday, February 25 at 10 am ET.“After last year’s rapturous return, Firefly 2022 is packed full of everything that makes the festival so special – incredible sets from iconic artists, the best food and beverage offerings within the Delaware Valley, treehouse DJ sets, spirited drag brunches and a joyful pride parade; unique, moments that give Firefly its characteristic sense of fun, flare and community” the announcement reads, and also notes that the festival will be presented in accordance with all applicable Covid-19 mandates, with more information available on its website.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSoundCloud has entered into a joint venture with Solid Foundation, the management and creative services arm of QC Media Holdings, which both are owned and operated by Quality Control Music founders Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas. In this deal and Solid Foundation are joining forces to “discover new talent and revolutionize artist partnerships by empowering creatives with bespoke resources, tools and access,” according to the announcement.As part of the joint venture, QC Media has made an investment in SoundCloud and as a result, Lee, Thomas and their Atlanta-based Solid Foundation artist management team will work collaboratively with the company to identify, invest in, and foster the careers of artists featured on the platform.

Brittany Aldean doubled-down on her criticism of the Biden administration in a Presidents’ Day social media post. "Happy President’s Day to such great U.S. presidents," reads a meme posted by the 33-year-old mother of two to her Instagram Story in which a portrait of Biden donning a face covering is smack dab in the middle of a grid of nine former presidents with the text "not you" affixed over his head.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe Weeknd will presented an immersive music special called “The Dawn FM Experience” on Amazon’s Prime video on Saturday, Feb. 26.