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A Scholarly Look at Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Espresso’ Wins ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award: Full Winners List

Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” was the earworm of 2024, an inescapable pop smash that miraculously retained its charm even after hundreds of listens. But did you ever think a scholarly look at the song would win a Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award? One just did. The 2025 Virgil Thomson Award for outstanding music criticism in the pop […]

Carrie Underwood Named Highest RIAA-Certified Female Country Artist of All Time: ‘More Than I Would Have Ever Dared to Dream Of’

Carrie Underwood has hit a new career milestone: She’s been named the highest Recording Industry Association of America-certified female country artist of all time, with over 95 million units (22.5 million in albums and 72.5 million in singles) in the United States alone, inclusive of solo titles and collaborations. Related Carrie Underwood to Revamp ‘Waiting […]

SoundCloud Rolls Out Features to Put ‘New Dollars on the Table’ for Artists

SoundCloud, a leading platform for independent artists and their fans, is debuting new features to make streaming more financially rewarding for its customers. On Thursday (Oct. 30), the company announced new components to its all-in-one offerings that will put more money into artists’ pockets.   “We’ve got an opportunity to solve the problem that streaming is […]

Morgan Wallen Sets 2026 Still The Problem U.S. Tour

Morgan Wallen is set to bring his high-octane, hit-filled show to 11 cities in 2026, when his 21-date Still The Problem Tour 2026 launching on April 10 in Minneapolis. Wallen’s new tour will visit stadiums in Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Pittsburgh, among other stops. He will play two nights in most locations […]

Artists Can Identify Unclaimed ‘Black Box’ Royalties Via New Platform From Stem Co-Founder

Stem co-founder Tim Luckow has launched a new platform that aims to help artists and songwriters claim so-called “black box” royalties, it was announced Thursday (Oct. 30). The platform, called Notes.fm, seeks to simplify the process of claiming these royalties. It requires only an artist or songwriter’s name to scan streaming services, collection societies and […]

Fashion Designer Bob Mackie Blown Away By Taylor Swift Wearing One of His Iconic Looks for ‘Showgirl’ Cover: ‘Kind of Shocked’

Beloved Hollywood fashion designer Bob Mackie is over the moon that Taylor Swift is repping one of his famously rhinestone-encrusted creations on the cover of her The Life of a Showgirl album. Speaking to E! News, Mackie, 85, said he was “kind of shocked” that the singer picked a real-life showgirl outfit he designed for […]

UMG Partners With Stability AI to Develop Music Creation Tools for Artists, Producers

Universal Music Group and Stability AI have announced a strategic partnership to develop music creation tools powered by “responsibly” trained generative AI.  The two companies said on Thursday that the collaboration will aim to support artists, producers and songwriters by integrating AI into the creative process while ensuring commercial safety and proper licensing. Stability AI’s […]