Julie Greenwald Named Chairman & CEO of Newly Created Atlantic Music Group

EXCLUSIVE: Indian Two Time Grammy Award composer and environmentalist Ricky Kej has signed to compose the original music for American-Bangladeshi writer-director Asif Akbar’s spy action-thriller MR-9 featuring Frank Grillo as a villain.

Thania Garcia Brandon Davis and Jeff Levin have been re-upped to executive vice presidents and co-heads of pop A&R for Atlantic Records‘ Warner Music imprint; both will be based in Los Angeles, and report to Atlantic President of A&R, Pete Ganbarg. “Both Brandon and Jeff have worked at Atlantic their entire professional lives, rising from entry-level intern and assistant positions to become an integral part of the leadership of our A&R team,” commented Ganbarg. “I couldn’t be happier for them and am thrilled to recognize their contributions with these well-deserved promotions.” Previously, the pair of execs held positions as senior VPs of A&R. Davis joined Atlantic 11 years ago as an assistant in the A&R department, and Levin joined in 2010 and has since A&R’d a wide range of WMG artists. His signings include Melanie Martinez (“Cry Baby”), Ben Platt’s debut album and signed Oliver Tree. Most recently, Levin A&R’d Charlie Puth’s third album, “Charlie,” which includes the gold-certified single, “Left and Right” featuring Jungkook of BTS.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan selling their catalogs for $600 million, Genesis and Phil Collins for $300 million, Stevie Nicks for $100 million — over the past few years dozens of artists have sold the rights to their music catalogs for eight or nine figures. There are all kinds of reasons why this is happening: Artists are getting older and are basically estate planning, the pandemic proved that copyrights can be a great investment, and the booming market is bringing more and more buyers and sellers to the table. But what do you do with that catalog once you’ve bought it? The old approach was to basically to sit and wait for the songs to make money — through radio, sales, use in films or TV shows or advertising campaigns, Broadway shows and lots of other ways.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson shocked fans more than once during Monday’s episode of "The Kelly Clarkson Show." Johnson joined the longtime singer for a segment of "Kellyoke," and the pair sang a country duet. Fans were stunned to hear Johnson’s vocals as he sang the late Loretta Lynn’s "Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’" alongside Clarkson.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Kendrick Lamar’s sold-out show at the Accor Arena in Paris on Saturday will be livestreamed exclusively through Amazon Music and Prime Video, the company announced today. The event will mark the 10-year anniversary of the release of Lamar’s monumentally influential album, “Good Kid, m.A.A.d City” and will give fans with a special look at Lamar’s 65-date world tour in support of his latest release, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” Airing live on October 22 at 2 p.m. ET, fans will be able to watch the livestream for free exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, and on the Amazon Music app. The stream will also feature sets from pgLang’s Tanna Leone and Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Baby Keem. Lamar’s performance will be available to view on-demand on Prime Video following the livestream event.

The stars lit up the red carpet for the premiere of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in London!

Saturday Night Live is continuing the trend of having its host also be the musical guest, announcing last night that rapper/singer Jack Harlow will do double-duty on the Oct. 29 show.

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday — especially when it’s New Music Friday! We’re breaking down this week’s best new tracks to keep on your radar.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor This past spring, as the omicron wave subsided and the world began a ready-or-not return to something resembling normal, the floodgates opened and thousands of musicians returned to the road. Audiences flocked to arenas and big theaters see Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Elton John and many others. Coachella launched the festival season with a bang, and smaller clubs began to cautiously figure out how to put on shows in tight spaces. It was a bumpy start — many acts (even Sir Elton and Bon Jovi) had to cancel or postpone shows because of positive Covid tests — but a start, nonetheless. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino says ticket sales are on their way to a record year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor TikTok parent ByteDance has begun talks with music labels about expanding its music-streaming service into more than a dozen markets in a move that would place it in direct competition with Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming services, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, the initial plan is to expand the company’s Resso service, which is currently only available in India, Indonesia and Brazil, into more than a dozen markets, although the U.S. is not said to be part of the next phase of expansion. The Journal’s sources say significant hurdles remain in the negotiations, but ByteDance wants the service to eventually be integrated within TikTok and to serve as a major platform for distributing music around the world.

American Music Awards nominations have arrived!The hottest acts in music will reunite for the annual celebration at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles in November. This year, reigning Favorite Male Latin Artist Bad Bunny leads the pack with a whopping eight nominations! If he were to sweep, he'd tie Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston for most awards won in a single year!Meanwhile, superstars Beyoncé and Taylor Swift hold the honor of being the most nominated female artists this year, with six nods each, while Adele, Harry Styles, and The Weeknd follow close behind with five a piece.Check out the full list of nominees — which also includes some brand-new categories! Adele Bad Bunny Beyoncé Drake Harry Styles Taylor Swift The Weeknd Dove Cameron GAYLE Latto Måneskin Steve Lacy Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Cast “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” Elton John & Dua Lipa “Cold Heart — PNAU Remix” Future ft.

Jenna Andrews but you know her work as a songwriter, a producer and publisher, and A&R executive working with the likes of BTS, Jennifer Lopez and Ed Sheeran. MORE: All the show-stopping red carpet looks from the 2022 MTV VMAsBorn in Canada, Jenna signed with Def Jam Records before turning her energy towards other artists, and now she's also working on her own podcast, The Green Room, giving artists a safe space to share the importance of being vulnerable. Jenna spoke with HELLO! about learning from K-Pop icons over WhatsApp, Dixie D'Amelio's debut album and J-Lo's smash movie Marry Me...

Charlie Puth doesn’t think that Harry Styles is one of his biggest fans. During an interview on the on Tuesday, the “Light Switch” singer recalled the reason why Styles may not be too fond of him.  Puth shared that during the “2014 One Direction era” right after he signed his record deal, he went into a high-profile sushi restaurant, and that’s where he accidentally blew the star’s cover after he walked into the place with his manager.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has promoted Jenna Park Adler to co-head of the agency’s global hip-hop/R&B touring group, alongside current head Mark Cheatham.  Adler personally reps artists across multiple genres as well as hip-hop and R&B, with a client roster that includes Jennifer Lopez, Doja Cat, Charli XCX, Green Day, Chloe x Halle, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Deftones, and Mark Ronson, among many others. She played a key role in Doja Cat’s rise, architected Green Day’s “Hella Mega” tour and helped Lopez develop her multi-dimensional businesses. “Jenna’s an undeniable force in the business and an invaluable member of the CAA team, brilliantly delivering for artists across genres,” said CAA Co-Head of North American Music Darryl Eaton.  “Mark and Jenna bring an incredible level of energy, experience and strategic vision to our industry-leading Hip-Hop/R&B group.  Under their leadership, the future is very bright.” 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor One of the new honors the Grammy Awards will introduce at their next ceremony is song for social change — a special-merit award that “recognizes creators of message-driven music that responds to the social issues of our time and has the potential for positive global impact.” While the honor is “curated by a blue-ribbon committee,” there’s little question that the number of submissions will have an impact — and according to the Recording Academy, 95,000 of the 115,000 submissions received have been for Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour’s song, “Baraye,” a protest song about 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested and beaten by Iran’s so-called morality police for not wearing a proper head covering, in line with the country’s Islamic law.

Ed Sheeran is bringing in the big bucks.

New Music Friday! It's every audiophile's favorite day of the week, and some of our favorite artists from all different genres have blessed us with new tunes.Migos' Quavo and Takeoff paired for their new album, Charlie Puth dropped his new album, Carly Rae Jepsen and Rufus Wainwright teamed up for «The Loneliest Time,» and Ozuna shared his fifth studio album, . Ed Sheeran also officially announced the North American leg of his “+ — = ÷ x Tour,” which kicks off May 6, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday — especially when it’s New Music Friday! We’re breaking down this week’s best new tracks to keep on your radar.