Music News

Music revenue rose 16.5 percent to $8.7 billion in the U.S. in 2017, and the majority of the increase is due to music streaming services. According to an annual report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), via Wall Street Journal, it's the second consecutive year of significant growth since 1999.

As with 2016, last year's music revenue rise can be attributed to streaming music platforms, which represented the majority of revenue. The category includes revenue from premium subscription services offered by companies such as Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, Pandora and Apple Music as well as ad-supported on-demand streaming services like YouTube and Vevo. In 2017, streaming music platforms contributed two-thirds of the total U.S music industry revenue. Paid subscriptions were the biggest driver, bringing in more than $4 billion in revenue for the first time.

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Kanye West is writing a philosophy booked called Break the Simulation, he told The Hollywood Reporter. The rapper discussed the project, which will be about art and spirituality, in conversation with his interior designer, Axel Vervoordt.

"I've got a concept about photographs ... about human beings being obsessed with photographs – because it takes you out of the now and transports you into the past or transports you into the future," the rapper said. "It can be used to document, but a lot of times it overtakes [people]. People dwell too much in the memories. People always wanna hear the history of something, which is important, but I think it there's too much of an importance put on history."

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Meek Mill will be released from prison following an order from the Philadelphia Supreme Court, CBS reports. The rapper, whose legal name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, served an up-to-four year sentence for violating probation stemming from a 2008 conviction on drug and gun counts. He has been in jail since last November.

The decision was a sudden boon for Williams' team. Last week, Judge Genece E. Brinkley denied Williams' bail and scheduled his subsequent hearing two months later to rule on the rapper's conviction. On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Supreme Court overruled Judge Brinkley, saying she "may opt to remove herself from presiding over any further proceedings in Meek's case in the interests of justice," said Williams' lawyer, Joe Tacopina, to WPVI-TV.

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Organizers announced Sunday that this year's FYF Fest in Los Angeles has been cancelled. The long-running music festival, which was set to celebrate its 15th anniversary on July 21st and 22nd, had booked Florence and the Machine, Janet Jackson and My Bloody Valentine for this year's lineup.

"After much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to cancel FYF Fest 2018," organizers wrote on Instagram. "Our team of many women and men have worked tirelessly on this event for many years but felt unable to present an experience on par with the expectations of our loyal fans and the Los Angeles music community this year."
Organizers also promised to announce "some special local shows" involving artists from the 2018 FYF Fest lineup in the near future.

While no concrete reason for the cancellation was provided, Billboard – which first learned of the festival's impending cancellation – cited low ticket sales. It's unclear whether FYF Fest will return in the future.

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Spotify caused a mighty stir yesterday when it announced that, under a new public policy against "hate content and hateful conduct," it would no longer feature R. Kelly on its playlists. The following day, Apple Music and Pandora announced they will also stop promoting the R&B singer, who is facing multiple sexual misconduct and assault allegations.

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BTS performed their new emo/hip-hop-tinged single "Fake Love" at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday. The song appeared on their latest album, Love Yourself: Tear.

Fans screamed all night whenever BTS appeared on camera, and host Kelly Clarkson was immediately overwhelmed by the crowd as she tried to introduce the group. "Y'all are crazy," she said, before putting on enormous pink ear muffs.

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Whitney Houston's estate said it was "extremely disappointed in Kanye's choice" to license a photo of the late singer's drug-covered bathroom counter for the cover of Pusha-T's new Daytona album.

Houston's estate registered its disapproval in a statement to ET on Tuesday. "Even in Whitney's death, we see that no one is exempt from the harsh realities of the world," the estate added.

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TStarting Tuesday, Facebook users in select countries can add songs to the videos they share and post; in addition, a new feature called “Lip Sync Live” will allow people to – surprise – lip sync songs live. Plans are also in the works to bring both to more markets in the near future. “Together with the music industry, we are working to enable people around the world to include music in their videos on Facebook, opening up more options for creativity and sharing memories with friends and family,” two of the company’s executives said in a blog post debuting the two new tools.

Music aficionados will rejoice at the new offerings, as the sharing of music has been sorely shunted aside in the social-media stratosphere since MySpace sputtered out in the late-2000s. The deals also mean that people who play music in Facebook videos won’t have to worry about copyright infringement, which is still a thorny issue with user-generated videos on other sites like YouTube.

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Controversial hip-hop hitmaker XXXTentacion was shot and killed on Monday in Florida, Broward Sheriff's Office confirmed. He was 20 years old.

TMZ first reported news of the rapper's death. XXXTentacion (real name Jahseh Onfroy), was reportedly leaving a motorcycle dealer in his car when a gunman opened fire, according to TMZ. Video footage circulating on the Internet appeared to show Onfroy lying in his car motionless following the shooting. TMZ reports that the police received a dispatch call describing a pair of suspects who drove away after the shooting.

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The family of Jahseh "XXXTentacion" Onfroy announced that a public memorial and viewing for the rapper would be held on Wednesday in his native Broward County, Florida.

"Fans come out and say your final goodbyes," the rapper's Instagram captioned next to the flyer for the memorial event, which takes place June 27th from noon to 6 p.m. at the "Florida Panther's Stadium"; the NHL team plays at Sunrise, Florida's BB&T Center. "It will be your last chance to see him."

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