News Headlines for Music Biz, May 13, 2021

Toronto musician Simone Schmidt advocates for homelessness in camps ahead of album launch
Simone Schmidt does her best to keep her activism separate from her music, but it is clear from the long delay in releasing her third album as Fiver in the world where her priorities lie. – Ben Rayner, Toronto Star
After years in Toronto clubs, Chippy Nonstop returns to his own music
Tired of the wait, the local DJ / producer released a new album with dj genderfluid – his first new music in almost a decade. – Kelsey Adams, NOW
Hall in one: the rise of CARAS and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame
The debut of the Junos and the birth of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame were by no means flawless endeavors. – Nick Krewen, National Post
Scott Smith’s Adventures in Pedal Steel airs live from Vancouver’s Blue Light Studio on May 28
Local pedal steel guitar fans who missed out on the Adventures in Pedal Steel nights Scott Smith used to put on at the Heatley on Hastings have something to look forward to. On May 28, the primo picker will present a live broadcast of a concert filmed at the Blue Light Studio, where he will show how the pedal board can be used in country, soul, indie-folk and gospel brand Sacred Steel. . – Steve Newton, Georgia Straight
It’s time we talked about the Dishrags and other long lost all-female Canadian rock bands
Toronto post-punk outfit Fifth Column, for example, was a revolutionary feminist and queer in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet Fifth Column, the subject of Kevin Hegge’s 2012 documentary She Said Boom, has had its day. Others like Dee Dee in Vancouver and the Dishrags weren’t so lucky. – Brad Wheeler, The Globe and Mail
International
Why is Believe going public? And what will he spend $ 600 million on?
On May 10, Believe – the leading independent artist and label service provider of French origin – fired the starting gun on an IPO in Paris. By floating part of her company on Euronext, Believe revealed, she hopes to raise just over $ 600 million. Here, Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillerie tells MBW all about the IPO. – Tim Ingham, MBW
11 Independent Musicians Explain How They Ride The NFT Wave
Skeptics like ANOHNI and Zola Jesus as well as believers like Mick Jenkins and Pussy Riot talk about the good, bad and ugly of the digital collectible game. – Marc Hogan, Pitchfork
Stream and Starve – Mediocre broadcast rates and scams galore for musicians
The music industry has been known for generations to rip off musicians wholesale. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how popular you are. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written songs or hymns. You will have the bad side of contracts and royalty agreements. Now, you’ll be on the wrong side of streaming rates as well. – Paul Wallis, Digital journal
âIt’s about the artist. It’s about the music. It’s not about you.
At the start of The Defiant Ones (the brilliant Netflix documentary about his separated and then intertwined life of Dr Dre), Jimmy Iovine says, âI don’t see production as a big thing. I consider it a job, not a great achievement. However, speaking to him now, particularly about his life and studio accomplishments, it’s clear that this brash and seemingly pessimistic statement is only partially correct. – Dave Roberts, MBW
Why was Dolly Parton dressed as a banana?
No, this is not an enigma. For its latest campaign, sunscreen brand Sun Bum outfitted statues in the United States in fruity costumes to raise awareness about skin cancer protection. – Michelle Laufik, BizBash
Bob Marley: 40th anniversary of the death of the music pioneer
It has been 40 years since legendary reggae singer Bob Marley died of cancer in Miami at the age of 36 on May 11, 1981. Here he is filmed. – BBC News
Iron Maiden teams up with BrewDog for Hellcat beer
BrewDog, one of the world’s leading craft brewers and the only carbon-negative beer brand, partners with Iron Maiden, one of the world’s most famous and revered rock bands, to launch Hellcat, an India Pale Lager, in the fall of 2021. – Buddy Iahn, The world of music
Expedia helps Joe Jonas travelers
Literally. The travel agency made 150 replicas of the singer’s hand to take away further travel stress. – Washington post
How to keep your group from breaking up
Keeping the peace between a group of passionate artists over a long period of time can, unsurprisingly, be a tall order. Here, we take a look at some essential tactics so as not to break up your party. – Patrick McGuire, Reverb Nation
How TikTok chooses which songs go viral
The app’s successes seem to emerge organically, but the success of artists like Megan Thee Stallion reveals a highly managed curation process. – Shelly Banjo, Bloomberg
Shaun Ryder: “ I was addicted to heroin for twenty years, but there was no damage to it ”
From ADHD to alopecia to learning the alphabet at age 28, the Happy Mondays singer has had a crazy and eventful life. He discusses hedonism, parenting – and why he has to spend so much time correcting Bez. – Tim Jonze, The Guardian
Best albums of the month: May
Check out all of our four and five star album reviews from the past month, from pop to folk to classic and more. Marianne Faithfull makes the cut. – The Guardian
The musical ‘Godspell’ celebrates its 50th anniversary
It will come as no surprise to his legion of fans that the first professional musical to be staged in the United States during the pandemic was âGodspellâ. The Berkshire Theater Group in western Massachusetts put on a production in August. – Seattle Times Post-Intelligencer
Melbourne’s Katie Weston to perform Alanis Morissette’s music across Australia
Alanis Morissette won’t be hopping on a plane to Australia anytime soon, which is a great opportunity for Melbourne singer Katie Weston to tour Australia to perform the songs. Katie’s ‘Uninvited’ is not a Covid lockdown show. She originally performed the show in Melbourne in 2019. – Paul Cashmere, Noise11
Demi Lovato to host unscripted UFO investigation series at Peacock
Demi Lovato will find out if the truth is out there in a new, unscripted UFO limited series that has been commissioned from Peacock. – Variety
Van Morrison: Review of the last volume 1 of the Record project – Depressing Rants by Tinfoil Milliner
The veteran bluesman loudly wakes the sheep with this boring and paranoid double album, reminiscent of a dinner with a bitter divorcee. – Alexis Petridis, The Guardian
Elton John and Years & Years cover the Pet Shop Boys, it’s a sin for the Brit Awards
Elton John and Years & Years came together for a truly spectacular performance of the Pet Shop Boys classic âIt’s a Sinâ at the BRIT Awards. – Noise11