Gonzo Lübel, an L.A.-based artist manager who represented acts including The Marías and Peach Tree Rascals, tragically died in a plane crash Tuesday (Oct. 8) on Catalina Island. He was 34.

“The entire Red Light family is devastated by this loss and our hearts go out to Gonzo’s family, friends and all those who knew and worked with him,” said Red Light in an Instagram post. “Gonzo truly had the biggest of hearts and was a beloved member of our team. A kind individual, he was a friend to all whom he encountered. His positive impact on all of us will be remembered forever.”

Lübel, who had worked at Red Light Management for roughly three years, also represented several other artists at the firm, including Inner Wave and Cash Bently. Outside of his work in the music industry, friends say he was a lover of animals — especially his foster dog Virgil — and enjoyed flying planes.

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In a tribute on Instagram, The Marías said of Lübel’s passing: “rest in peace gonzi. thank you for always being undeniably you. the animals in heaven are so lucky they get to spend their days with you.”

In a subsequent post, the bilingual alt-pop band added: “our manager, friend and family for six years, but a part of us forever. you were there for all of our firsts. our first project, our first tour, our first headline show, our first sold out show, our first million streams, our first coachella, our first album, our first grammy nomination. thank you.”

Joseph Barros, a member of Peach Tree Rascals, also shared a tribute to Lübel via an Instagram story, saying, “It’s hard to accept you’re not here with us anymore, but I’m grateful to have met such a genuine soul I could call my brother your spirit lives on in me from all the beautiful memories we made. You always told me you believed in me & I promise I’ll make you proud. love you Gonzito. rest in peace.”

This Trip Travel, a company that hosts retreats for music industry professionals, also shared a carousel of photos of Lübel at last year’s manager summit in Mexico with the caption: “Gonzo was a true one of a kind. A brilliant manager, a caring friend and a heart of gold… We love you Gonzo, we’ll hold you in our hearts forever.”

Lübel is survived by his mother Mariana Garcia, his brother Federico Lübel, nieces Mila and Lucia Lübel, wife Cristina Pillajo and best friend Sandy Kanphantha.

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From the football field to the baseball diamond! Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce went to Yankees Stadium on Monday night (Oct. 14) to watch the first American League Championship Series game between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians.

In photos circulating social media, the duo decided to match on their date night, both rocking black caps and black coats to the event. While it’s not immediately clear who they’re rooting for, it could be a house divided, as Kelce is from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Swift is a longtime New York City resident. The couple, who have been dating since last summer, were seen in a suite enjoying beers and chatting with each other.

“Welcome to New York, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce!” an MLB post on Twitter read, fittingly referencing Swift’s 1989 album opener.

Welcome to New York, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce! ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/bJqjGwsooH

— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024

Swift and Kelce are, obviously, no strangers to a sports game. During the football season, the “Fortnight” singer is often spotted cheering on her tight end boyfriend and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

However, they’ve also attended other sporting events, including the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens in September, alongside Kelce’s Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany. At one point, Swift and Kelce were filmed in the middle of an animated sing-along to “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness playing over the stadium’s loudspeaker.

Swift also made her way to Yankees Stadium back in 2022, but not for a game. She was presented with an honorary doctorate at NYU’s Spring 2022 graduation ceremony, where she gave an inspiring commencement speech for the graduating class.

Utattemita is Japan’s online culture of uploading vocal covers of Vocaloid tracks or pop songs to video sharing sites, and the singers who post such covers are generally referred to as utaite. From Nov. 22, the country’s largest video platform, Nico Nico Douga, will be hosting Utattemita Collection (commonly referred to as Uta-Colle), a four-day event inviting utaite singers to submit such covers. Uta-Colle is the utattemita version of The VOCALOID Collection (aka Voca-Colle) submission project that began in 2020.

At the Uta-Colle event held this spring, utaite Underbar (officially stylized as __) submitted an a cappella cover of “Igaku” by Sasuke Haraguchi. He reproduced all the notes using only his own voice without using any musical accompaniment, and ranked No. 5 among the top 100 submissions to the event. Underbar is a veteran utaite with 1.05 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, celebrating the 15th anniversary since his debut this year. 

Sasuke Haraguchi began composing music at the age of five and made his major label debut in 2018 as track maker SASUKE when he was 15 years old. He submitted his representative track “Hito Mania” to the Voca-Colle Summer 2023 event, and this hit song went on to achieve 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard Japan’s Nico Nico Vocaloid Songs Top 20 list.

The two artists sat down together to chat about today’s utattemita culture ahead of the upcoming Uta-Colle Autumn 2024 event, sharing their views from the standpoints of utaite and track maker.

Underbar, you covered “Igaku” a cappella for the previous Uta-Colle event. Why did you choose that style to cover it?

Underbar: When listening to the way the sounds are put together (on the track), I got the impression that it was unusual and quite different from other Vocaloid producers (Vocalo-p). I really like the way it uses sound effects as accents and male voices, and thought, “I want to try doing this with my own voice.” I thought it would be interesting to be able to express a composition of unusual sounds with my mouth instead of using a normal guitar or bass. He’d officially released the stem data, so I also used that as a reference.

Haraguchi: I thought the stem data would be used for remixes or something, so I never imagined it would be used for utattemita (a vocal cover). [Laughs]

I’ve heard that when you create tracks using Vocaloid, you try to be aware of things that make people want to cover them. Could you elaborate on that?

Haraguchi: There are a few, but one is to keep the tracks short. People seem to think I do this to make them TikTok or (YouTube) Shorts-friendly, but that’s not the case. It’s to make recording vocals easier when covering them. I sometimes record temporary vocals for commercial productions so I know how singers feel, and I’m glad when (the tracks) are short. Some songs have the same lyrics in the chorus, so you could copy and paste if worse comes to worst.

Underbar: I really like your videos, as well as your music, of course. I think it’s amazing how you make such stylish videos at a low cost. Nowadays, it’s like a race to see how much money you can spend to come up with a good video, the utattemita community included.

Haraguchi: Yeah, there are music videos that make you go, “Is this an opening sequence for an anime series?”

Underbar: Right? So it’s amazing how you create that stylish collage feel using live-action footage. I’m like, “Wow, I never would have thought of that!”

Sasuke, could you share what creative aspect about Underbar that you respect?

Haraguchi: You were already well known when I was in elementary school, and I respect the fact that you’ve been consistent all this time. Rather than taking years to establish the way you do things, you had it all worked out from the start. That’s awesome, and at the same time, you’re expanding the scope of what you do.

Underbar: I’ve always liked festivities. This might be something common among people of my generation who post videos on Nico Nico Douga, but the main thing is that I wasn’t doing it for the money. This is the big difference between now and then. Now, many people start posting with the aim of earning ad revenue or becoming a major-label or professional artist, but back then there was no such thing as ad revenue, and just because you became famous didn’t mean you could be signed to a major label or appear on TV and stuff. At the base of why I got started was, “It’s popular and seems like fun.” That still hasn’t changed for me, and when I see a new fad that seems like fun, I get the urge to join in. 

When did you start watching utattemita videos, Sasuke?

Haraguchi: Around 2015 or 2016, maybe?

You were probably already composing by that time. Did utattemita videos influence your own production?

Haraguchi: I did hope singers would cover my works like that someday. But I wasn’t making that kind of music at the time. If you want to make a song that people will want to cover without using Vocaloid software, it either has to go pretty viral or be tied to an anime series. I wasn’t doing either.

Underbar: When choosing a song to cover, it’s certainly easier to choose a Vocaloid track. Songs that use Vocaloid are open to a wide range of interpretation, so everyone can be “correct.” With the ones that have human vocals, both the cover artists and listeners tend to think that the original version is correct, so the singers will cover them in a way that’s closer to the original. I tend to prefer utaite singers putting their own spin on their covers.

Haraguchi: I know what you mean. Maybe because my songs are a little unusual, some people sing them in a way that’s similar to the original Vocaloid version, but I don’t think that’s necessary. I want people to just do whatever they want and mess with it.

Have you noticed any changes in the feedback you receive, or any differences in your fanbase since you started releasing Vocaloid tracks?

Haraguchi: Yes, very much so. With the music I’d been doing up until then, I never really had the chance to hear directly from listeners, so I didn’t really know how many people were listening to it. The culture in the Vocaloid community is that if you think something is good, you make sure to say so, whether you’re the listener or the creator. The comment section on video platforms are like that, and communication on X (formerly Twitter) is, too. I feel like I’ve suddenly been thrown into such a place and it worries me in an opposite way. Sometimes when I’m at home alone, I tell myself, “Don’t get carried away, you have to work hard.”

How do you feel about events such as Voca-Colle and Uta-Colle that Nico Nico Douga has primarily been organizing since 2020? 

Haraguchi: There was a period when Vocaloid culture had cooled down, so I’m glad many people are making (tracks) and watching (the videos) again now. But I also think that it’d be scary if the mood became like, “We have to work hard at it.” I want to use the opportunity to expose myself to a lot of other people’s works to feel things like, “This trick is interesting” and “I want to do this too,” no matter how they’re ranked.

How about you, Underbar?

Underbar: I think projects like Uta-colle are great. The reason is that utaite have never really had a clear goal to aim for. Now it’s possible to be signed to a major label, but even if that happens, if you don’t make it big then it’s over. And a song you covered could become a hit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will become famous, because the original version is the main focus. After all, utattemita is derivative. So even if you suddenly decide to write your own lyrics and music, people might be like, “No, that’s not what I want to hear.” The hard thing about being an utaite is that just because you’re good at singing doesn’t mean you’ll make it big. I’d like to see a trend where utaite can dream and be like, “If I keep doing what I do on Nico Nico Douga, I can get this far,” and Nico Nico Douga actively promotes the winner of the Uta-Colle.

—This interview by Yuuka Higaki first appeared on Billboard Japan

PPL has been appointed to collect neighboring rights for John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Announced Tuesday (Oct. 15), the deal will see the U.K.-based collective management organization (CMO) collect broadcast and public performance royalties globally on sound recordings where Lennon or Ono are listed as performers in markets where such rights exist.

“PPL has shown they are the leaders in advocating for neighboring rights globally,” said the Lennon estate in a statement. “We have the utmost respect for the team and look forward to working with them.” 

Lennon released 11 solo albums as a performer, including 1970’s John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band alongside Ono. 

As a performer, songwriter or co-writer, Lennon landed 25 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 both as a member of The Beatles and as a solo artist. He also landed three No. 1 albums as a solo artist on the Billboard 200.

In 2023, The Beatles released their “final” song, “Now and Then,” which was completed with the aid of machine-learning-assisted audio restoration. The song landed at No. 7 on the Hot 100 and at No. 1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Charts.

During her career, Ono has secured 13 No. 1 singles on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart and released 14 solo albums.

PPL, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2024, has 111 agreements in place with other CMOs for royalty collection, according to a press release.

Peter Leathem, CEO of PPL, said in a statement: “It is an honor to be appointed by the John Lennon Estate for neighboring rights collections. Our team works hard to ensure no stone is left unturned in the collection of neighboring rights royalties around the world. It is a privilege to advocate for and collect public performance and broadcast rights globally for such a revered catalog of recorded music.”