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It’s less than two minutes into a phone call with Ryan Tedder, and with little prompting, the OneRepublic frontman makes a prediction: The wealthy who left cities for calmer pastures during the early days of the pandemic will take on hefty buyer’s remorse. The result, by next year, will be …

This story appears in Rolling Stone‘s 2021 Future of Music issue, a special project delving into the next era of the multibillion-dollar hitmaking business. Read the other stories here. In her long career as a tastemaker, Phiona Okumu has made it her personal mission to elevate emerging African acts. “We …

Superfan marketplaces, virtual influencers, AI-powered music campaigns, and mobile-phone holograms were only a few of the pioneering ideas bandied about during Techstars Music’s Demo Day on Tuesday (May 18th), which aired exclusively on Rolling Stone‘s Twitch channel. From a competitive global pool, Techstars Music selects a handful of promising music-tech …

InRolling Stone‘s seriesAt Work, we go behind the curtain with decision-makers across the fast-changing music business — exploring a range of responsibilities, burgeoning ideas, advice for industry newcomers, and more. Readearlier interviews here. You’ve likely listened to Greg Kurstin’s songs, even if you don’t know who he is. While Kurstin …

Last week, Kings of Leon became the first band to a release a new album as a non-fungible token (NFT) — and a representative tells Rolling Stone that the band has already grossed more than $2 million in sales, with $600,000 of that going to Crew Nation. While Kings weren’t …

If online profiles can lead to marriages, maybe they can also lead to record deals. On Thursday, independent music-distribution service Distrokid launched a new initiative called Upstream, which functions as a matchmaking service for artists and labels, with Universal Music Group’s Republic Records signed on as the first partner. When …

Neil Young has sold 50 percent of the worldwide copyright and income interests in his 1,180 song catalogue to Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, the U.K. investment firm founded by manager-turned-investor Merck Mercuriadis. The move comes days after Hipgnosis, which has spent the last year snapping up music catalogs left and …

Three years since Lil Peep‘s death, the legal battle over who’s responsible for the young rap star’s drug overdose is more intense than ever. While Peep’s mother alleges that his label set him up with unfair contracts and directly contributed to his death, the label is now countering with its …

It’s been more than eight months since the Covid-19 outbreak saturated America in panic. The live events industry is still in a chokehold — and concerts, which are pivotal parts of musicians’ album cycles and livelihoods, have yet to return in force. Some have tried to expedite the process, looking …

Epic Games announced early Wednesday (4 a.m. ET to be precise) that J Balvin will be the latest star to have a gig on Fortnite. The Colombian singer is set to headline the game’s “Fortnitemares” event on on Halloween, and the show will air in Fortnite’scasual “party royale” mode. Balvin’s …