Category: pop music

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LiveOne (Nasdaq: LVO), an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform, announced today an exclusive virtual pay-per-view (PPV) showcase in celebration of Emblem3‘s highly anticipated new album, Songs From the Couch Vol. 2, set to release on February 8, 2023. Presented in partnership with LiveOne Presents and Next Step Talent, Emblem3’s Songs From the Couch Vol. 2 Album Release Party PPV event is scheduled for Tuesday, February 7th at 7pm ET / 4pm PT.

The event will provide live performances by the group as well as virtual meet-and-greets and an exclusive look behind-the-scenes with Keaton, Wesley and Drew of Emblem3. Viewers will also gain access to an Emblem3 NFT, tickets to their next event and other special giveaways exclusively during the Feb. 7th event.

While the virtual show’s production will take place in Los Angeles on February 4th, LiveOne will provide Emblem3 superfans an intimate experience with the three band members showcasing their new album a day before it is released to the public.

After their meteoric rise to fame with their Billboard Hot 100 charting debut album, Nothing to Lose, and breakout single, “Chloe,” the Southern California rock-pop trio has amassed over 5.8M social media followers and over 57M YouTube views to date. They are set to roll out their new album, Songs From the Couch, Vol. 2, the follow-up to their Songs from the Couch, Vol. 1 album, which garnered over 8.3 million Spotify streams.

“We took a little break but we’re excited to reconnect with our fans,” said Keaton from Emblem3. “We’re thrilled to be able to perform all of our new songs for audiences worldwide so easily, thanks to LiveOne!”

“LiveOne is all about uniting the world through music, and these virtual live music events are key to making that happen,” said Josh Hallbauer, LiveOne’s Head of Talent. “We are thrilled to be working with Next Step Talent on presenting amazing young talents like Emblem3 to our global audiences.”

Tickets for this exclusive virtual event are now available at LiveOne.com/Emblem3.

About Emblem3

From Southern California, Pop-Rock hybrid Emblem3 first rose to fame on the 2012 season of The X Factor USA. Made up of brothers Keaton & Wesley Stromberg (sons of Grammy-nominated composer William Stromberg & nephews of Academy Award-winning art director Robert Stromberg) along with childhood best friend Drew Chadwick, the trio got their start writing songs in their basement, performing at schools, and all over Los Angeles before debuting on the big stage. After finishing in 4th place, E3 signed a recording contract with Simon Cowell’s Syco Records & Columbia Records. Their album Nothing to Lose debuted at #7 on Billboard Hot 100 & breakout single “Chloe” sold nearly 500K copies by the end of 2013 (18 M+ official music video views to date). With their growing fan base, the band toured internationally to Europe and South America and headlined their own North American tour, #Bandlife.

About LiveOne Presents

LiveOne Presents is a virtual livestream series featuring exclusive and intimate performances from some of today’s hottest emerging and established artists live from venues across the world, including: OneRising, Rooftop Series, After Parties, Concerts, Stay Driven, The Show and The Unlocked Sessions.

About LiveOne, Inc.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, LiveOne, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVO) (the “Company”) is an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform focused on delivering premium experiences and content worldwide through memberships and live and virtual events. The Company was awarded Best Live Moment by Digiday for its “Social Gloves” PPV Event, and has been a finalist for 8 more awards, including Best Live Event, Best Virtual Event, Best Overall Social Media Excellence, and Best Original Programming from Cynopsis and Digiday. As of January 17, 2023, the Company has accrued a paid and free ad-supported membership base of 2.73 million**, streamed over 2,900 artists, has a library of 30 million songs, 600 curated radio stations, over 300 podcasts/vodcasts, hundreds of pay-per-views, personalized merchandise, released music-related NFTs, and created a valuable connection between fans, brands, and bands. The Company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries include Slacker Radio, Custom Personalization Solutions, LiveXLive, React Presents, Gramophone Media, Palm Beach Records, PPVOne and PodcastOne, which generates more than 2.48 billion downloads per year and 300+ episodes distributed per week across its stable of top-rated podcasts. LiveOne is available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and through OTT, STIRR, and XUMO. For more information, visit liveone.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter at @liveone.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are “forward-looking statements,” which may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as “may,” “might,” “will,” “will likely result,” “would,” “should,” “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “seek,” “continue,” “target” or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements, including: the Company’s reliance on one key customer for a substantial percentage of its revenue; the Company’s ability to consummate any proposed financing, acquisition, spin-out, special dividend, distribution or transaction, including the proposed special dividend and spin-out of PodcastOne, Slacker or its pay-per-view business, the timing of the consummation of such proposed event, including the risks that a condition to consummation of such event would not be satisfied within the expected timeframe or at all, or that the consummation of any proposed financing, acquisition, spin-out, special dividend, distribution or transaction will not occur or whether any such event will enhance shareholder value; PodcastOne’s or Slacker’s ability to list on a national exchange; the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern; the Company’s ability to attract, maintain and increase the number of its users and paid members; the Company identifying, acquiring, securing and developing content; the Company’s intent to repurchase shares of its common stock from time to time under its announced stock repurchase program and the timing, price, and quantity of repurchases, if any, under the program; the Company’s ability to maintain compliance with certain financial and other covenants; the Company successfully implementing its growth strategy, including relating to its technology platforms and applications; management’s relationships with industry stakeholders; the effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic; uncertain and unfavorable outcomes in legal proceedings; changes in economic conditions; competition; risks and uncertainties applicable to the businesses of the Company’s subsidiaries; and other risks, uncertainties and factors including, but not limited to, those described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on June 29, 2022, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2022, filed with the SEC on November 17, 2022, and in the Company’s other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company disclaims any obligations to update these statements, except as may be required by law. The Company intends that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

** Included in the total number of members for the reported periods are certain members which are the subject of a contractual dispute. LiveOne is currently not recognizing revenue related to these members.

Latto is back in the studio and has teased another “pop” anthem on the heels of the massive commercial success of her Mariah Carey-sampling “Big Energy.”

On Tuesday (January 31), the Georgia-bred rapper took to Twitter to post a clip of her in the studio twerking and making it rain dollar bills with a couple of friends while her next single boomed through the speakers.

“Pop Latto loading,” she captioned the video.

Check out a snippet of Latto’s new track below:

Latto’s new music comes on the heels of the madness surrounding her used panties eBay auction earlier this week.

The Grammy-nominated rapper’s underwear came under scrutiny over the weekend when an eagle-eyed Twitter user called her out for wearing the same cheetah print thong in two separate photos — to which Latto clapped back with: “Oh no, it’s the panty police.”

The “Big Energy” hitmaker took her response one step further on Monday (January 30) by giving her fans an “inside look” at her panty drawer and revealing her plans to “wear a pair today and sell em tomorrow.”

Staying true to her word, Latto later posted a link to an eBay auction of her cheetah print panties, with bidding starting at $0.99.

“Latto’s everyday cheetah print panties,” the item’s description read. “Used. As seen on Latto multiple times.”

Within hours, social media had been buzzing with Latto’s antics as bidding had reached tens of thousands of dollars, at one point climbing to a whopping $95,650 after more than 100 bids.

Although, Latto won’t be celebrating a five-figure payday from her panties, as eBay removed the auction due to it violating their policies.

“Used underwear is not allowed on site please report any listings you see in breach of policy,” eBay’s Customer Service page, @AskeBay, wrote on Twitter in response to a fan who flagged the listing.

Meanwhile, Latto could see her star power reach new heights this weekend as she remains the betting favorite to win Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

Do the Grammys have a snubbing problem?

This year’s Grammy Awards, which airs at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, will be devoid of three of the biggest names in music. Silk Sonic, Drake and The Weeknd all declined to submit their works for various reasons.

Drake is apparently not happy about being confined to the rap categories.

“The only category that they can manage to fit me in is in a rap category, maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m Black,” said Drake previously on the Apple Beats 1 podcast.

In 2017, “Hotline Bling” was nominated in rap categories, not the pop categories that Drake would have preferred. Drake’s 2022 album, “Honestly, Nevermind,” was a No. 1 hit. The single, “Jimmy Crooks,” to be fair, does sound very much like a hip-hop song.

Weeknd’s problems with the Grammys also go back a few years. His breakthrough album, “After Hours,” and smash single “Blinding Lights,” were snubbed by the Grammys in 2020. “Blinding Lights” has more than 500 million views on YouTube since then.

“I remain uninterested in being a part of the Grammys, especially with their own admission of corruption for all these decades. I will not be submitting in the future,” said The Weeknd in 2021 to Variety, after the Recording Academy announced the elimination of its “secret” nomination-review committees.

As for Silk Sonic, aka Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, their only beef with the Grammys seems to be that they won too many awards. The duo’s 2021 album, “An Evening with Silk Sonic,” had one eligible song at last year’s ceremony, “Leave the Door Open,” and it won four awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mars, who has won multiple awards in the past as a solo artist, said “Silk Sonic would like to gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually, bow out of submitting our album this year.”

Story continues

The aforementioned artists might still win Grammy gold based on collaborations. Still, the fact that three of the era’s biggest hitmakers are turning away suggest that the award’s influence is waning.

Grammy history is not exemplary. The awards were founded in 1957 to stave off the growth of rock ’n’ roll. The music establishment of the time — record execs like Mitch Miller — were fearful of losing their positions of power to this new and dangerous sound.

That’s why middle-of-the-road artists such as Tony Bennett and Henry Mancini won a bucketful of early Grammy awards. The Beatles, who won only five Grammys while they were an active band, were largely snubbed.

There were more snubs. The Rolling Stones didn’t receive a single Grammy in the ’60s and ’70s, and the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds,” now considered one of music’s greatest recorded works, wasn’t even nominated.

Elvis Presley won three Grammys in his lifetime — all for gospel. Chuck Berry won one — a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984.

After a few decades, rock ’n’ roll finally started to get recognition, but there were a few blunders along the way — including Jethro Tull winning the 1989 Grammy for Hard Rock/Metal over Metallica.

More:Trippie Redd among hot hip-hop acts added to Bamboozle festival in Atlantic City

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Once the rock ’n’ roll establishment got in charge of the Grammys, they in turn snubbed hip-hop. There wasn’t a hip-hop award until 1989, bypassing a decade of great records. Only two hip-hop acts, Lauryn Hill in 1999 and Outkast in 2004, have won Record of the Year.

This year, Beyoncé is an early favorite, with nine nominations related to her album, “Renaissance,” and hit single, “Break My Soul.” Kendrick Lamar has eight noms, and Adele and Brandi Carlile have seven each.

Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” (“A Summer Without You”) is up for Album of the Year, the first Spanish-language album to be nominated for that award.

As for Jersey talent, Snarky Puppy, the jazz-fusion group with Brick’s Bob Lanzetti on guitar, are up for a Contemporary Instrumental Album Grammy; SZA, aka Solana Rowe of Maplewood, is nominated for Melodic Rap Performance on the song “Beautiful” with DJ Khaled and Future; and Jack Antonoff (New Milford and Hillsdale) is going for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

Performers at the ceremony include Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Bad Bunny, Brandi Carlile, Lizzo, Luke Combs, Steve Lacy, Kim Petras and Sam Smith. Trevor Noah returns as host.

Will viewers continue to snub the awards? The 8.93 million who watched last year was a slight increase over the 2021 viewership, which was a record low.

Watch: 2023 Grammy Awards, 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, CBS, Paramount+

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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Grammy nominations 2023: Drake, Weeknd Silk Sonic skip awards

A Paramore pop-up store will be at Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema in Surry Hills on Saturday, 11 February from 10 am to 5 pm, and at the Oshi Gallery in Collingwood – from 12 pm to 5 pm on Sunday, 12 February – to celebrate the release of the band’s sixth album; This Is Why to be released on 10 February. 

The event is hosted by Warner Music Australia and will boast “brand new and exclusive merchandise, music and more, including items from their recent US tour merch range.” Anyone who walks in the door also has the chance to win a Paramore flexi disc. Find the Facebook event page here.

Paramore are making a statement with their new album, This Is Why.

The American band returned after a lengthy hiatus in September, releasing the title track and their first new song since 2017’s After Laughter (vocalist Hayley Williams put out two excellent solo albums in 2020, Petals For Armor and 2021, Flowers For Vases / Descansos).

This Is Why is an ear-worm of a track that explores a “plethora of ridiculous emotions” and “the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022”. On the other hand, their latest single, The News, is pointed in commentary and drumming work.

“The News is one of those songs that came together pretty quickly and felt exciting from the start,” Williams revealed in a statement. “It feels like a happy medium between classic Paramore angst and bringing in some influences we’ve always had but never exploited. Watching Zac [Farro] track drums for this one was one of my favourite memories from the studio.”

Lyrically, The News tracks the incomprehensible 24-hour news cycle and the guilt we feel when we switch off to protect our mental health. Talk about relatable.

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, with long-time collaborator Carlos de la Garza, This Is Why features ten new Paramore songs with cover art shot by Zachary Gray.

Paramore performed at the inaugural When We Were Young festival last year – where fans witnessed All I Wanted‘s live debut, and after that, Paramore ran through hits from all their albums, from the tour debuts of Here We Go Again from All We Know Is Falling to Last Hope from their self-titled album.

This Is Why, Paramore’s sixth album, will be released via Atlantic Records on Friday, 10 February 2023. Pre-order the album here.  

A giant saltwater aquarium was on display, and kids were invited to watch the anemones, sea urchins and clown fish that look like Nemo.

Five-year-old Stephanie Copeland wore an ASU cheerleader outfit and a maroon and gold bow in her hair as she pressed her nose against the tank, searching for a starfish.

Sophie’s mother, Stephanie Copeland, said she appreciated that the fun Open Door activities are a way to get kids introduced to the idea of going to college.

“I’ve always said kids should have messaging for college from when they’re little,” she said. “There’s so many exciting things here to find out and learn about to get excited to go to college.”

In another room, kids used crime-solving techniques like chromatography, fingerprints, blood typing and DNA analysis to solve the crime of who kidnapped Sparky. Was it Louie the Lumberjack from the Northern Arizona University, Thunder the Antelope from Grand Canyon University or Wilbur the Wildcat from the University of Arizona? (Spoiler alert: It was Thunder.)

Nikki Trevizo, a health sciences major, said her favorite part to show kids was the magnetic dust used for fingerprints, which can be spilled on the desktop and immediately wiped clean with the wave of a wand. But the kids themselves really love the fingerprint chart. Several crowded around, comparing their fingertips to the poster.

“The patterns are what really get them, how everyone has different patterns on their fingers,” Trevizo said.

The “Anatomy World” room showed specimens like skulls and organs, plus ASU’s “virtual dissector,” which is sort of like a high-tech game of “Operation,” and everyone got to watch students dissect sheep hearts and lungs.

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication had several kid-focused activities, including “I Can Be a Sports Journalist,” where families saw the sports newsroom and learned about summer camps.

Jeffrey Hinkle, a fourth-year student majoring in sports journalism, told young prospective journalists how he works in the sports bureau two days a week.

“I pitch my story, I get my assignment and by 10 in the morning I’m out getting quotes, filming b-roll, meeting with people and doing actual journalistic work,” said Hinkle, who wants a career in on-air broadcasting or podcasting.

“They’ve been asking, ‘How do you like your job?’ and I tell them it’s pretty cool. I get to watch sports for a living, and I get to write about it.”

Arizona PBS, based in the Cronkite School building, had crafts, games, readings and live music in its “Kids Zone.”

There was also a huge celebrity. When asked why the family came to Open Door, Andrea Golfen said: “Because of Daniel Tiger.”

Golfen waited in a line with her 4-year-old and 2-year-old so they could get their photos taken with a large, fuzzy Daniel Tiger, star of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” on PBS.

“We thought that we better meet Daniel Tiger while he’s here before we go to check out all the other stuff,” she said.

The Instruction Kitchen in the Health South building became a “Mad Food Science Laboratory,” where families created nitro hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows.

Megan Orcutt, a dietetics major, manned the boba table, which had four flavors: strawberry, root beer, orange or lemon. Guests filled a pipette with flavored sodium alginate and put little blobs of it into a bowl of calcium chloride, and then water, and that process made the sweet little gelatinous boba balls.

“I had been wanting to volunteer, so it’s really nice that our class requires it, and now I know what to do when the next opportunity comes up,” she said.

Other activities in the health buildings included a CPR demonstration, a demonstration of the patient simulators used by nursing students and tables where families could create a “calming kit” and a first-aid kit.

Downtown Phoenix’s Civic Space Park featured photo booths, activities in Spanish and information on STEM activities with the Arizona SciTech Festival. The public also could tour the campus, including the new Fusion on First building, which houses ASU’s pop music and fashion programs.

Find more information about the upcoming Open Door events at opendoor.asu.edu. Guests are requested to have a ticket. Tickets are free and available online or at the door; tickets ordered by the Wednesday before each event will be entered in a drawing for a swag bag.

Top photo: Open Door attendees Chapman (front) and Addison flash their Sun Devil pride on Jan. 28 on the Downtown Phoenix campus. Photo by Alwaleed Al Rasbi/Arizona State University

Google has made an AI that can transform text prompts into music that lasts several minutes, The Verge reports(Opens in a new window).

The AI model, similar to Open AI’s image generator DALL-E, is called MusicLM and was revealed by Google in a research paper(Opens in a new window) penned by thirteen researchers. The paper includes a plethora of samples made using MusicLM, which include impressive five-minute clips of melodic techno, swing, and jazz and range in genre from meditation sounds and electronic music to death metal and rap.

The AI was able to generate music from a combination of melody and text prompts too. For example, in one case it generated an opera vocal to the melody of “Bella Ciao” being hummed. In another example(Opens in a new window), MusicLM was able to generate a song from a “gym” prompt that had incoherent lyrics and a vocal and melody with a distinctively Arab-pop sound.

The tool could also generate a fusion of reggaeton and electronic music “with a spacey, otherworldly sound,” that induces the experience of being “lost in space,” as one detailed text prompt reads.

The researchers said their experiments with the AI show that “MusicLM outperforms previous systems both in audio quality and adherence to the text description. Moreover, we demonstrate that MusicLM can be conditioned on both text and a melody in that it can transform whistled and hummed melodies according to the style described in a text caption.” 

For those hoping to try the music-generating AI tool for themselves, you’ll be disappointed to hear that Google has “no plans to release models at this point.” The researchers cite risks of “potential misappropriation of creative content” as well as potential cultural appropriation or misrepresentation. 

However, the research paper says a public dataset is being released with around 5,500 music-text pairs, which Google says can help the training and evaluation of other music-based AIs.