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Jann Arden Makes Her Koerner Hall Debut at The Royal Conservatory’s Star-Studded Royal Occasion Gala

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The Royal Conservatory of Music’s marquee annual fundraiser returns April 22 at Koerner Hall in Toronto, and this year’s Royal Occasion brings a lineup that makes the $750 ticket price feel like a bargain. Multi-platinum Canadian icon Jann Arden headlines the evening, making her Koerner Hall debut and receiving an Honorary Fellowship from the RCM in recognition of her extraordinary legacy as a songwriter, author, and performer. Eight JUNO Awards, sixteen albums, and nineteen top-ten singles speak for themselves. You can buy tickets here.

Special guests Laila Biali and Donovan Woods round out a bill that keeps the evening firmly in the hands of some of Canada’s finest. Biali, an RCM alumna and JUNO Award winner for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, has headlined stages from Carnegie Hall to Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts. Woods brings his emotionally precise folk and roots songwriting to the Koerner Hall stage, earning his own JUNO win for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year for ‘Both Ways’ in 2019, with songs recorded by artists including Tim McGraw.

The Royal Occasion has raised $3.6 million over the past decade in support of RCM education and performance programs, from the Oscar Peterson School of Music to The Glenn Gould School. Every ticket purchase directly funds the next generation of Canadian artists. The evening runs from a 6:30PM cocktail reception through an 8:00PM concert and a high-energy after party at 9:30PM.

Tickets are $750 per person and available now. VIP Lounges are sold out. A raffle package featuring six days in Vienna and Budapest is also available, with Air Canada as travel partner.

The Royal Occasion takes place April 22 at the TELUS Centre for Performing and Learning, 273 Bloor St. West, Toronto.

From Stream Counts to Real Income – Turning Spotify Into Revenue

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By Mitch Rice

Spotify is more than just a site to listen to music; it is a very strong business instrument for you to earn money from your art. Every one of your streamed songs could give you actual revenue earnings, but success on Spotify demands more than the mere process of uploading your songs. You have to combine passion and some good strategies to draw an audience that will trust your music. Therefore, your Spotify profile must be clear, engaging, and effective in building on your visibility and the trust that people have in you. In fact, you can turn the casual stream counts of Spotify into a long-term income by signalling all these elements. The path to building a more professional presence becomes much easier when you adopt the right strategies early on.

Understanding How Spotify Pays

To earn money from Spotify, you must understand how your streams translate into actual earnings. Each stream adds to your total earnings, but these earnings are influenced by a variety of factors, one of which is the number of monthly listeners that you have. Sometimes, your potential earnings will be influenced by the place you are in, as Spotify pays differently in different countries. Regular streams tend to be more profitable each week and offer a more stable daily flow than relying on occasional hits. Understanding these aspects is important because it shows that building a loyal audience who regularly listens to your music is essential for creating long-term income. It is not only about the number of streams but also the nature of your audience’s listening pattern.

Building a Strong Artist Presence

The foundation of actually attracting listeners and maintaining them is to build an engaging artist profile. It starts with completing your profile with all the essential details, ensuring it makes a strong impression. A strong and harmonious brand enhances the recognizability of an artist’s identity, with carefully chosen visuals, including cover art and photographs, complementing this effort. You can also make a much deeper connection with your listeners by telling them stories and personal insights about your music. Ensuring that your profile does not seem haphazard and is enticing makes your initial impression solid, and it pushes people into new music. The combination of these small efforts not only maximises your Spotify presence but also provides the foundational content needed to grow a loyal audience.

Growing and Engaging Your Audience

The heart of earning money through Spotify lies in the constant and continuous growth of your audience. To get started, stay active on Spotify by regularly updating your content—whether it’s new music, stories, or other material—even if only occasionally. One must make a call to action, urging the listeners to follow or save your tracks in order to achieve a long-term and more sustainable relationship. You must also reach out to your social media followers and explain that the best spot to listen to your music is on Spotify. Collaborating with fellow artists or lineup artists will also give you access to a fresh audience, and it will help you find new fans in exchange. All these actions create a condition of excitement, involvement, and the expanding family of supporters, which translates into an increase in daily streams and, ultimately, income.

Spotify Growth Services

Spotify growth services can be one of the most efficient tools you can use in your strategy to increase your numbers. Through reputable services, buying Spotify followers, plays or saves as a “jump-start strategy” will give you an initial boost in visibility and growth. As soon as your metrics begin to rise, it becomes far more probable to attract organic and real listeners who are actually interested in your music. Such growth gives you a level of professionalism and credibility, especially if you are a new artist or a budding artist. And one of the advantages is that it can furthermore help to create increased revenues as a result of these increased metrics. Using these services as part of your growth strategy helps you build a better platform for long-term revenue growth.

Monetisation Beyond Streams

Your income on Spotify is not limited only to the number of streams. Getting your songs placed in playlists will actually enhance your revenue potential, as playlists have a way of being very popular and reaching more people. In addition to that, you may boost your music income by selling merchandise, tickets to concerts, and special bundles to your audience. Link your Spotify profile well to your other accounts where you might offer paid content, as it gives your audience an overwhelming reason to show their monetary support. Sustaining that contact with your fans and inspiring their loyalty will bring you additional forms of caring support. If you think over such monetisation options carefully, you will be able to diversify your income stream and guarantee that your art is sustainable in the future.

Creating Compelling Playlists to Drive Traffic and Promote Music

One of the strong ways to increase your presence on Spotify is to create your own compelling playlists. When you curate the tunes that fit with your music, you give people a reason to visit your profile again and take an interest in your songs. You can blend your own music drops with tracks from artists in the same genre to boost the chances that listeners will check out your tracks. It’s also good to share your playlists on social media platforms and adapt to followers’ feedback, hence cultivating a budding fanbase. You can also link up with fellow musicians and share mutual playlists because this will expose you to their fan base, too. Thus, making unique playlists not only drives more traffic to your page but also gets you noticed and recognised in the competitive landscape of Spotify.

Using Data Analytics to Boost Spotify Performance

If you want to increase your earnings on Spotify, you cannot overlook the importance of data analysis. Spotify for Artists gives you data: how many people listen to your music, where they come from, and what keeps them coming back. Such analytical data helps you make informed decisions to know which songs should go on a playlist or if you should tour in a certain area. By analysing your most popular tracks, you can create new music in a similar style to engage and grow the same audience over time. Also, paying attention to audience feedback gives you the chance to adapt to their changing tastes. Being grounded in such an approach enables you to be proactive and to be part of changes in your career in a really intelligent way. Additionally, tracking listener demographics allows you to target your marketing more effectively, ensuring your promotional efforts reach the right audience. Monitoring streaming trends over time can also reveal emerging opportunities, helping you stay ahead in a competitive music landscape.

Utilising Spotify Ads for Targeted Promotion

To promote your music and reach a fresh audience, Spotify ads are a good tool to use. The platform has an advertising solution, called Spotify Ad Studio, which allows you to create a very precise campaign that reaches only those people who have similar interests and tastes. You can either opt for audio spots or image-based ads to announce something special and ask your audience to follow or listen. To boost the impact of an ad spend, it is possible to direct it to pre-playlists or albums, and to social media and mailing lists. One of the advantages of Spotify ads is that they work very well with a low budget; you can design a campaign in line with your budget and the objectives. Spotify ads not only increase your music visibility but also lead to more streams and, finally, growth in income.

Engaging Your Fans through Live Streaming and Q&A Sessions

An earlier-mentioned way to take your music to the next level is by live streaming and Q&A sessions. In this way, you will be able to connect personally with your fans and create an outrageously loyal and committed following. You can perform live versions of your most popular songs and interact with your audience directly in real time. Let the audience ask questions or suggest songs to play; it makes them feel part of what you are doing. The good thing is your fans can use Spotify while streaming these sessions, so they can easily get into your music. Platforms such as Instagram Live or Twitch can also help you reach different audiences. Over time, one live streaming session can create great loyalty, more streams, and increased support for your work.

Conclusion

Transforming Spotify activity into real income is completely doable and within reach. All those numbers and streams may appear meaningless. Still, they become sensible and become a component of a bigger plan; to be more visible, to engage with the audience, and to be consistent. Even performing small actions, such as utilising growth services, can have an impact over time and gradually develop into something that provides both growth and long-term sustainability. Probably the most important thing is to be patient, to be intelligent in nurturing your audience, and to be intelligent in making all your artwork valuable. It is the right time to take action, test and watch the emerging details, and begin earning a fortune on Spotify.

Data and information are provided for informational purposes only, and are not intended for investment or other purposes.

How to be more tech-savvy with your smartphone

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By Mitch Rice

Your smartphone sits at the centre of your daily life. There are many shortcuts and features that can make everything run more smoothly that you might not have discovered yet. Whether you play arcade games online or scan tickets at the door of a gig, there are features your phone contains that enable you to be more tech-savvy.  When you understand how your phone really works, you waste less time fighting settings and gain more moments for the things you enjoy.

Optimise your device

Modern smartphones come with impressive hardware, but software habits often slow them down. Apps that refresh constantly in the background drain battery life and chip away at performance, which causes games to stutter and the camera app to take too long to open. A quick audit of background activity can free up memory and make everyday tasks feel snappier, especially on older devices. You also benefit from regular updates, as developers fix bugs and improve efficiency behind the scenes rather than adding flashy extras. You can schedule updates to install overnight so your phone stays current without interrupting your routine.

Boost your efficiency

Your phone can act as a personal assistant if you set it up to support your habits. Small tweaks to notifications and gestures save surprising amounts of time. For example, grouping alerts by app stops your screen from lighting up every few minutes, while swipe gestures let you switch tasks without hunting for buttons. Set up app-specific notifications so only important messages break your concentration.

Once you do that, you can use features like split screen to reply to a message while checking a calendar or browsing the web. These changes help you move through tasks with less friction, which means fewer mental interruptions during a busy day.

Improve your security

Your smartphone carries more personal data than your wallet ever did, from payment details to private photos. Good smartphone security means setting sensible barriers that protect you when something goes wrong. App permissions, for example, prevent unnecessary access to your location or contacts. You feel the benefit most when you lose your phone or connect to public Wi‑Fi, as strong settings limit the damage.

Enable authentication and review app permissions so each app only accesses what it needs.

Store all your documents

Paper still creeps into modern life, yet your phone can replace folders and envelopes with ease. Cloud storage keeps everything backed up. Use a scanning app and cloud storage to digitise key documents and organise them into clearly named folders.

When you need proof of purchase or a travel document, you can pull it up instantly instead of rummaging through drawers. That convenience adds up, especially when life moves quickly.

Becoming more tech-savvy with your smartphone does not require technical jargon or endless tinkering. With a few thoughtful adjustments, you turn a familiar device into a reliable tool that works the way you do.

Data and information are provided for informational purposes only, and are not intended for investment or other purposes.

The Wonder Licks Turn a Brooklyn Closet and a Broken Heart Into Sweeping New Ballad “There’s A Place I Go”

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The Wonder Licks know how to make a small space feel enormous. Their new single “There’s A Place I Go” began in a 5×5 rented room in Brooklyn that frontman Jacob Wunderlich used as a creative refuge, and it carries that intimacy into something genuinely cinematic. This is the fourth single from their upcoming album ‘Simping For Big Toilet’, and it is their most sweeping statement yet.

The song sits in the fragile space between heartbreak and acceptance, told from the perspective of the one left behind. It does not rush toward resolution. It lingers in the in-between, where memories still have weight but something that might be healing is quietly taking hold. Wunderlich’s writing here is deceptively simple, which is exactly what makes it work.

Built on a chord progression that moves from intimate verses into a soaring C-F-G chorus, the arrangement is where the song truly opens up. Pablo Leira Filgueira delivers a standout electric guitar and pedal steel performance, while lush violin arrangements, piano flourishes, and layered background vocals push the minimalist structure into full cinematic territory. Wunderlich calls it his “Purple Rain-adjacent ballad,” and that reference earns its keep.

The Wonder Licks have been building toward something with this run of singles, and “There’s A Place I Go” makes the clearest case yet for what ‘Simping For Big Toilet’ could deliver. Four singles in, the album cannot arrive soon enough.

London Singer-Songwriter Liya Shapiro Confronts the Ache of Unrequited Love on Chamber Rock Single “Another Woman”

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Liya Shapiro thought she had already healed. Then she found out the person she once loved had moved on, and “Another Woman” arrived from that specific, irrational sting. The title track from her upcoming EP is out now, a chamber rock meditation on the contradiction of feeling something you know you no longer have the right to feel.

The song does not flinch from that paradox. Shapiro sings about not loving someone anymore while still feeling the hurt of watching them move on, and the honesty in that framing is what makes it land. This is not a breakup song. It is something more complicated and more human than that, a portrait of self-worth struggling against emotion that refuses to follow logic.

Sonically, “Another Woman” is built to carry that weight. Soft, melancholic verses swell into a raw, frustrated crescendo, the chamber rock instrumentation recorded live and given real visceral texture. Shapiro’s vocals are effortless and theatrical at once, full of character, the kind of performance that makes a song feel lived-in from the first listen.

Shapiro came to music through an unusual path, studying art history, fashion, and anthropology, and all three disciplines show in how she builds her world. Art shapes how she hears sound. Fashion drives her visual identity. Anthropology gives her a framework for examining the human condition. The result is an artist whose work feels considered at every level.

The momentum behind her is real. Since her 2021 debut single “Mirror,” she has crossed 150,000 Spotify streams, earned press and playlist support, and headlined a sold-out show at The Troubadour. “Another Woman” is her most fully realized statement yet, and the EP promises more of both the closure and transformation she is building toward.

Photo Gallery: July Talk And Julianna Riolino At Toronto’s History On March 31, 2026

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All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her through Instagram or X.

Darkwave Phenomenon Artemas Takes His Moody Alt-Pop Universe on a 38-Date Global Tour

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Artemas just mapped out the rest of his year and it covers the globe. The darkwave alt-pop phenomenon has announced a 38-date world tour, his biggest live run to date, kicking off September 8 in Vancouver and closing December 14 at the legendary O2 Academy Brixton in London. Support comes from Henry Morris across the run.

The tour follows the release of his new mixtape ‘getting up to no good’ and the close of his LOVERCORE Tour across North America. Artemas has been building momentum at a pace that is hard to ignore, and this run scales that vision to its largest audience yet. His live shows are known for being fully immersive, deeply atmospheric experiences that translate his moody, addictive sound into something that hits differently in a room full of people.

The numbers behind Artemas tell the story of an artist whose moment has fully arrived. Over 3.6 billion global artist streams, including more than 2 billion on his RIAA 3x Platinum breakout “i like the way you kiss me.” With ‘getting up to no good’ marking a new creative peak, the demand for this tour is real and the venues reflect it, from amphitheaters in Austin to storied rooms across Europe and the UK.

VIP and presale tickets go on sale Tuesday, April 7 at 10am local time. General on-sale follows Wednesday, April 8 at 10am local time.

2026 Tour Dates:

North America:

September 8: Vancouver, BC @ Malkin Bowl

September 10: Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24

September 11: Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl

September 13: Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre

September 16: Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall

September 18: San Antonio, TX @ The Aztec Theatre

September 19: Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater

September 22: Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory

September 24: Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater

September 26: Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion

September 29: Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore

October 1: Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave

October 2: Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre

October 3: Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues

October 5: Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte

October 7: Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle

October 8: Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works

October 10: Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall

October 11: New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place

Europe + UK:

November 12: Paris, FR @ Le Bataclan

November 14: Esch-sur-Alzette, LU @ Rockhal

November 15: Cologne, DE @ E-Werk

November 16: Zurich, CH @ X-Tra

November 18: Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo

November 20: Milan, IT @ Fabrique

November 22: Prague, CZ @ SaSaZu

November 23: Warsaw, PL @ Progresja

November 25: Hamburg, DE @ Docks

November 26: Berlin, DE @ Huxleys Neue Welt

November 29: Stockholm, SE @ Fallen

November 30: Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller Music Hall

December 1: Copenhagen, DK @ Vega

December 3: Brussels, BE @ La Madeleine

December 7: Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg

December 10: Edinburgh, UK @ Edinburgh Corn Exchange

December 12: Manchester, UK @ O2 Victoria Warehouse

December 13: Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy

December 14: London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton

Trippie Redd and Young Thug Connect on Euphoric New Banger “Paperbag Boy”

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Trippie Redd opens 2026 with a statement. “Paperbag Boy,” his first new single of the year, arrives with a music video and a feature from Young Thug, two of modern rap’s most distinctive melodic voices stacking up on a J-Bone production built from candy-coated synth arpeggios and speaker-obliterating 808s. The result is exactly as euphoric as it sounds.

The track captures something specific: the feeling of having made it while still carrying the memory of where you started. Trippie and Thugger slide through the beat’s crevices with the kind of effortless melodic chemistry that reminds you why both of them matter. The hook lands hard and stays there, which is the whole point.

Trippie spent 2025 in strong form, dropping the defiant “Can’t Count Me Out” with Platinum-selling trap architect ATL Jacob and the soaring Nick Mira-produced “Sketchy.” Then his 2018 Diplo collaboration “Wish” took on a life of its own, resurging through an emotional social media trend that generated over 8 billion views across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. At its peak the song was pulling 10.5 million weekly streams, and it eventually climbed onto the Billboard Hot 100 more than seven years after its original release.

The numbers behind Trippie Redd are staggering: Diamond-certified, 14 billion streams worldwide, and a catalog that has consistently pushed modern rap’s emotional boundaries through fearless experimentation. “Paperbag Boy” keeps that momentum moving forward, and his highly anticipated album ‘NDA’ is coming later this year via 1400 Ent., 10k, and Atlantic.

Singer-Songwriter Pete Muller Shares Stunning “Stopping Time” Video Shot at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios

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Pete Muller does not make small records. The new music video for “Stopping Time,” a highlight from his album ‘One Last Dance’ out now via Two Truths Music, offers a behind-the-scenes look at a track recorded at Peter Gabriel’s legendary Real World Studios in Bath, England, with additional overdubs captured at New York City’s famed Power Station. The locations alone tell you something about the ambition at work here.

The song itself is a plea against the clock, unfolding through emotionally resonant vignettes exploring longing, memory, and the stories we construct to make sense of time passing. Genre-bending duo SistaStrings provide rich orchestration alongside Rob Mathes’s string arrangement, and the combination gives “Stopping Time” a cinematic texture that rewards close listening. It is one of the most quietly affecting tracks on an album full of them.

‘One Last Dance’ is Muller’s most vulnerable songwriting to date, self-produced alongside his band the Kindred Souls and featuring Grammy-winner Allison Russell on the Latin-flavored title track. Other highlights include the empowering “Fire Child,” the uplifting “Dream Small,” and the bittersweet “New York In The Rain.” Americana UK and Americana Highways have both offered praise, and the album earns every word of it.

This is Muller’s fourth studio release in five years, following 2024’s ‘More Time’, which drew acclaim from Consequence and Rock & Roll Globe. His path here is genuinely compelling: after success in quantitative finance, he followed his creative instincts, built a catalog, and earned tour dates alongside John Oates, Lisa Loeb, Jimmy Webb, Livingston Taylor, and Paul Thorn, plus festival slots from Telluride to Montreux.

Muller also founded the nonprofit Live Music Society, which provides critical grants to independent music venues across the country. He is an artist and an advocate, and ‘One Last Dance’ reflects both sides of that commitment fully.

Two-Time Folk Music Award Winner Crys Matthews Signs With TRO Essex and Releases Rallying Cry “Forged In Fire”

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Crys Matthews has never been an artist who looks away. “Forged In Fire,” her powerful new single produced by Seth Glier, arrives as both a document of a specific moment in American political life and a rallying cry that reaches back to the Civil Rights movement for its emotional foundation. It is urgent, fully realized, and exactly the kind of song Matthews was built to write.

The single was written during a particularly turbulent week under the second Trump administration, born from headlines covering birthright citizenship battles, farmworker raids, press freedom violations, and the targeting of undocumented children. Matthews connects those headlines directly to the conditions endured by Civil Rights activists before her, and the song carries that weight without flinching. Hopelessness, she reminds us, is not an option.

The production matches the ambition. Powerhouse vocalists Kyshona, Kiley Phillips, Nickie Conley, Wil Merrell, and Jason Eskridge surround Matthews in a performance that draws fully on her A.M.E. upbringing. This is a song that takes you to church, and means it. The blend of Country, Americana, Folk, Blues, and Bluegrass that defines Matthews’s sound gives “Forged In Fire” both roots and reach.

The single also marks a significant career milestone. Matthews has signed an exclusive publishing and recording agreement with TRO Essex Music Group, home to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Pete Townshend, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath, alongside its label arm Shamus Records. It is a signing that places her in company that reflects exactly the kind of artist she is.

The recognition has been building for years and is now impossible to ignore. Matthews is the 2025 and 2022 Song of the Year winner at the International Folk Music Awards, making her the first artist to claim that honor twice since the award’s inception. She was also named 2024 Artist of the Year. “Forged In Fire” is out now.